


Across my Memory

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 19:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12087876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: A Malvie/Anastasia AU:  When a young girl seeks to recover her lost memories, a spunky con artist and her loyal friends see their golden opportunity to make a fast buck and get the heck out of dodge.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Auradon...

  
...Life had never been grander.  
  
An enchanted world of opulence and elegance, whirling day in and day out as if the kingdom spun within a magical snow globe.  Happiness, wealth, goodwill, Auradon was a dazzling land of endless possibilities, ruled over by the King, his Queen Belle, and their three children.  
  
The royal castle was a fortress of grandeur, hosting grand parties, feasts, celebrations as far as the eye could see.  Nobility and gentry alike gathered within the glittering halls at the King's whim, and today, they gathered for a birthday.  
  
It was the glittering halls where every twist and turn was being excitedly raced by the young Princess Evie, who had just turned six.  Excited skips and little hops touched her steps; she was a little girl who knew presents and music and festivities were all for  _her_ , and she burst into the grand gallery of the castle, the enormous main hall where the center of the party was being held.  On a blind quest to glimpse the tower of gifts she knew was waiting somewhere in the almost cavernous room, Evie ran straight into Princess Audrey.  Audrey, sixteen, was barely even jostled by her little sister's tiny form, but Evie herself went tumbling backwards, falling onto her butt on the marble tile.  
  
"...Really, Evie, is that any way for a princess to behave?" Audrey turned her head just enough to scowl at her.  
  
Evie pouted, her ecstatic mood deterred for just a second until her brother's laugh was behind her and his arms were lifting her up and setting her on her feet.  
  
"It's her birthday.  Give her a break," Crown Prince Ben said.  
  
"Where are the presents?" Evie quickly demanded, bouncing in place.  
  
Ben shook his head.  
  
"The party's hardly begun.  Just give it a little bit," he said.  
  
A second royal pout fit for a queen, almost too big for the girl's little face.  
  
"Run along," Audrey shooed her away.  "Just—don't  _actually_ run."  
  
Evie all but stomped away, disappearing into the crowd of guests.  
  
Glamour and grandeur aside, in spite of the sounds and the lights—young Evie was bored.  A whole day of festivities dedicated to her, and no one for her to talk to.  Her mother and father, entertaining dignitaries and fellow royalty.  Her sister social climbing and her brother mingling, partygoers all adult and woefully uninteresting; in short, no one her own age. Evie was very, very bored, hence her itch to get into some sort of mischief.  
  
So from the main gallery she slipped unseen through the back hallway and crept to the kitchen, planning to sneak a glimpse at her birthday cake. The little princess was practically invisible, as small as she was, moving soundlessly among the kitchen staff whizzing around earnestly to churn out endless food for the party.  Past long counters and kitchen islands she treaded, keeping low but popping up on her tiptoes every few seconds in vain attempts to peek over the too-tall counters for her cake.  She made it all the way to the back of the kitchen without a single sighting of frosting, frowning to herself.  
  
"You're not supposed to be here."  
  
Too short to properly see and too single-minded to even make an attempt, Evie had passed right by the girl sitting cross-legged on top of one of the counters. Evie's eyes lit up.  Someone her own age.  
  
"Hi!" she beamed up at the girl.  
  
Her newfound acquaintance wasn't quite as beamy.  
  
She fearlessly made the big leap from the counter down to the floor, narrowing her eyes at Evie.  
  
"Kitchen's no place for a  _princess_ ," she sneered the word.  
  
Evie didn't like her tone, scrunching up her face instantly.  
  
"Says who?" she questioned.  
  
"Says me!  Now get outta here!" the tough little girl puffed up.  
  
Evie was ready to stand her ground, but the sounds from the party drifted easily past the kitchen, and the blare of a trumpet chorus sounded just then, heralding someone's arrival.  
  
"The Grand Duchess Potts!" the court announcer's voice boomed.  
  
"Grandma!" Evie gasped.  
  
Without another word to the kitchen girl, Evie raced off, this time not too small but too fast to be seen by the chefs and speeding out of the kitchen on those energetic legs of hers.  She didn't even stop when she made it back to the gallery, just ran right into the waiting arms of the plump, cherubic woman standing with the King and Queen in the middle of the room.  
  
"Grandma!!"  
  
"Evie, my dear!" the Grand Duchess lifted her easily, clutching her in a tight hug.  
  
"You made it!" Evie giggled.  
  
"Why, of course I did!"  
  
"But you're leaving..." Evie's face fell almost heartbreakingly.  "You're moving away to Villeneuve."  
  
"But I couldn't miss your birthday party now, could I?"  
  
Her grandmother set her down and took her hand, leading her out among the floor.  She stooped over and sniffed at Evie's hair, making her laugh.  
  
"You smell sweeter than usual, my dear.  Been sneaking into the kitchens?  Looking for a birthday cake, perhaps?"  
  
"Don't tell!" Evie squeezed her hand, looking up at her.  
  
The Grand Duchess laughed happily.  
  
"It'll be our little secret."

 

* * *

 

 The party later moved to the ballroom, where couples twirled and swayed to the festive tunes of the orchestra.

  
Evie had found a dance partner in her brother, riding atop his shoulders as they spun around and around.  Not even Audrey could find time to disapprove, what with the gleeful smile on her little sister's face.  
  
The Grand Duchess watched over all the happenings from one of the royal thrones at the head of the room, relaxing and softly clapping along to the beat of the song.  When Ben put her down, Evie skipped the length of the ballroom to pay her grandmother another visit; her entire past hour had just been her bounding back and forth from the dancefloor to her grandmother.  
  
"Evie, my darling, come here," Grandma Potts patted her lap, and Evie hopped into it.  
  
The Grand Duchess tilted Evie's chin up, had a good long look at her youngest granddaughter's beautiful face.  
  
"...Oh, I will miss you so, Evie," she said.  
  
That beautiful face was overcome with a sad frown.  
  
"Then don't go," Evie told her with all the innocence of a child.  
  
"...I'm afraid it's not that simple, dear.  But here, your first present, from grandma to you."  
  
The Grand Duchess reached down into the bag at her side and pulled forth what looked like a jewelry box, red, carved from sleek wood, with an ornament of a sword piercing a heart as its lock and latch.  Evie gasped, taking the box and running her fingers over the smooth finish.  
  
"It's so pretty..." she breathed.  
  
Her grandmother procured a necklace from her purse, a small ruby heart charm with a golden crown, then fit it into the back of the box and twisted.  
  
The music in the room seemed to drown out in Evie's ears as a beautiful, crystalline melody tinkled out from the box.  Some tiny mechanism within cranked the lid open along with the tune, and there, dancing, as if magically animated, were little detailed figurines of her mother and father.  Evie's earthen eyes sparkled, and her grandmother sang.  
  
" _...On the wind, 'cross the sea, hear this song and remember.  Soon you'll be home with me, once upon a December_."  
  
She freed the necklace to fasten it around Evie, the heart charm settling in the center of her chest right above her own heart.  Evie rested the jewelry box on her grandmother's lap and threw her arms around her neck, squeezing her tight and breathing in the scent of tea that she always seemed to carry with her.  
  
"I love you, Grandma..." Evie murmured.  
  
"And I love—"  
  
A monstrous clap of thunder struck from out of nowhere, rattling the castle itself right down to its very bones.  The orchestra's music screeched to a disorganized halt, clearing the air and making room for a second thundering boom that sounded alongside a bolt of lightning.  Startled gasps and shouts rippled like waves through the ballroom, and all partygoers froze.  A frightened Evie clung to her grandmother, looking with wide eyes out among the dancefloor.  It was the middle of the afternoon, yet the sky had darkened dreadfully.  
  
When a flash of green fire erupted in the middle of the room, the screams started.  
  
It was a haunting sight that emerged from the quickly dying flames, a gaunt, horned figure reminding the little princess so much of a demon that her entire body started trembling right then and there.  More screams followed, bouncing and echoing off the walls for a moment before deadening into stunned, disbelieving silence.  
  
"...Well.  Quite a glittering assemblage, your majesty," the frightening newcomer crooned, clutching a scepter in one hand as a menacing raven swooped in and came to rest on her shoulder.  "Royalty, nobility, the gentry..."  
  
Her laugh would've been a pleasant sound, if everything about her presence didn't scream "sinister".  
  
Everyone came pouring into the ballroom from other parts of the castle at the commotion, desperate to know what was going on.  Close by, Evie just so happened to spot two of the chefs, a waiter, and behind them, the little girl from the kitchen.  She was staring more intently at the horned woman than quite possibly anyone else in the room.  
  
"Maleficent!!"   
  
The raging voice of the King boomed through the hall like the thunder as he strode forward to meet her head on, the crowd parting on his approach to let him by.  
  
"How  _dare_  you return to this castle!" he snapped.  
  
"...How did you escape from the island?" Queen Belle fearfully asked, gathering Ben and Audrey behind her.  
  
Maleficent's laugh was not so pleasant the second time around.  
  
"Did you think you could banish  _me_ to that wasteland?  Imprison  _me_  with the common rabble?  Why, I am the Royal Sorceress, your majesty."  
  
"You are not who you made us believe you were. You are a fraud, and a  _villain!_   And you are to stay imprisoned on the island with the rest of them!"  
  
The raven hopped from Maleficent's shoulder to the top of her scepter, and she lifted a hand to idly stroke his feathers.  
  
"...You think you can curse the villains to lead that squalid life?" she questioned, her voice suddenly as hard as the edge of a knife.  "You think you can curse us to live packed together like animals, feeding on your leftovers, your garbage?!  I think not, your majesty, for  _I_  curse  _you_.  Mark my words, you and your entire family will  _die_ on this day!  Villains!!"  
  
Maleficent struck her scepter to the floor, where it sparked and startled the raven from its perch.  
  
And all at once, the entire room was alight with fires of green.  
  
The running and screams started right away, overwhelming poor Evie's senses of sight and sound.  Chaos erupted as even more new figures burst forth from the fires, and names that meant nothing to Evie began to be shouted from the crowds.  
  
"Jafar!"  
  
"Ursula!"  
  
"Scar!!"  
  
"Facilier and the Horned King!"  
  
Sheer chaos.  
  
Evie didn't even realize that her grandmother had her up and running, her attention was grimly fixed out on the others.  Roars of animals, flashes of lightning, whipping tentacles, the many dazzling and telltale colors and sounds of magic spells being thrown forth; the ballroom was under attack.  Evie saw Ben lock onto Maleficent in the middle of the pandemonium and bravely charge forward, only to be thrown impossibly far across the room with just a wave of the witch's hand, landing hard on the floor and laying there unmoving.  
  
"Ben!!" Evie cried, being pulled this way and that by her grandmother.  
  
Evie couldn't take all the noise, it filled her head and drowned her like thick tar. She somehow picked out the screams of her mother and sister among all the rest, but couldn't find them lost among the panic.  A bolt of purple lightning shot past them, so close that Evie felt the singeing heat of it.  The Grand Duchess sought to find them an escape, a way through the crowds to get out of the ballroom.  Evie caught a glimpse of her father being crushed within the inky black tentacle of a creature half-woman, half-octopus.  She didn't even feel the tears streaming down her cheeks.  
  
She and her grandmother were stopped by an explosion of red smoke just ahead of them, clearing when a tall and gangly man gave a wave of his cobra scepter.  
  
"Going somewhere?" he grinned evilly.  
  
The eyes of the gilded cobra began to glow with magic, and as the villain reared a hand and prepared to unleash some dark spell, a tiny form rushed him around the knees and tackled him into the ground.  The kitchen girl.  
  
"Go!" she shouted, pointing at the wall straight ahead of them all.  "Move it or lose it!"   
  
She yanked the man's massive hat down over his eyes, buying some time as she moved to reach the wall before Evie and the Grand Duchess. Quickly and easily, before anyone could see, she slid open a hidden door in a small section of wall, beckoning the two inside.  
  
"This way!"  
  
The Grand Duchess was already moving, but Evie suddenly yanked her hand free.  
  
"My music box!" she exclaimed, already spun around on her heels to dive back into the madness and retrieve it.  
  
But the kitchen girl had her around the waist, wrestling her through the door.  
  
"Move it or lose it, princess!"  
  
She successfully got Evie inside, Grandma Potts followed, and the young girl slammed the door shut on them, concealing the entrance just in time to get struck by one of those blasts of purple lightning.  It threw her into the wall, where her head cracked painfully against the wood, and with a groan she slumped unconscious onto the floor.  
  
The noise, the deafening  _noise_  didn't stop even after they'd ran what felt like non-stop from the far reaches of the castle.  Here, in the city it was the screeching of a train whistle and the heavy stomps of footsteps back and forth along the platform.  News that the villains had invaded was not something so easily sequestered, and the mad dashes for escape and safety were just as prominent here at the train station as they were back in the royal castle.  The train was already on the move, and the Grand Duchess just barely caught the end of it, climbing aboard.    
  
But someone chose that moment to rush right past her and Evie, jarring the princess' hand loose from her own.  
  
"Evie!!" she called out, reaching out desperately to her granddaughter racing to keep up alongside the train tracks.  
  
"Grandma!" Evie's eyes blurred all over again for the countless time that night.  She reached back, stretching out her fingers.  
  
But it was absolutely no use.  
  
The little girl was lost among the crowd, swallowed up by the throng, shoved over onto the hard pavement, her head smacking into cold stone when someone knocked her down as they raced by.  
  
Her vision swam, bright white, then fading to gray.  The last things she felt were the tears on her cheeks, the last thing she heard was her grandmother's voice, calling out again and again.  
  
"No, Evie!!  Evie!"  
  
Again and again.  
  
"...Evie... _Evie_..."  
  
Fading to black.  Everything dulling.  
  
" _E...vie...E...vie..._ ”  
  
Absolute blackness.  Utterly inescapable.  
  
" _...E..._ ”


	2. Chapter 2

_11 years later..._

\-------------  
  
Puffs of December white speckled waves of purple as Mal's shoes crunched through snow.  She made a mental note to steal a better pair, preferably boots, which was easier said than done when most citizens of Auradon only had one pair to their name to begin with.  Stealing shoes that were currently being worn was no simple task.    
  
Not impossible, just not simple.  
  
The streets of the city were packed to the brim in this morning hour, Mal had to roughly push and shove her way through the crowd as she trudged past a warehouse on the way to the marketplace. And floating out from the interior of the building just to her left, her ears pricked at the sound of something, something hard to make out at first that quickly built into the sounds of music and a tune.  
  
"...Here we go," Mal sighed, tugging the collar of her jacket tighter around her neck.  
  
Clearly sensing it was coming, the music reached a crescendo, a mass of workers filed out from the warehouse, and everyone on the street seemed to gather together in song.

_"The royal city's gloomy."_

  
_"The royal city's bleak!"_  
  
_"Queen Elsa would get frozen standing here all week."_  
  
_"For since we were invaded, our lives have been so gray."_  
  
_"Thank goodness for the gossip that gets us through the day!  Hey!"_  
  
_"Have you heard, rumor's here in Cinderellasburg!"_  
  
_"Have you heard what they're saying on the street?"_  
  
Mal ducked into an alleyway, taking a shortcut and coming out right into the marketplace, promptly snatching an apple from an old woman peddling them around in a basket and speeding off without a single care.  
  
_"Although the king did not survive, one daughter may be still alive.”_

_  
"The royal princess Evie!"  
_

_  
"...But please do not repeat."_  
  
She expertly dodged the other marketplace peddlers practically chasing her down in an effort to make a coin or two, ducking around a stall here, disappearing into a thick patch of crowd there, chucking a snowball at a man pushing watches elsewhere.  
  
She came to one market stand that was more of a tiny little shack, appearing to seek it out in particular before rapping her knuckles on the wood of the door.  
  
"Jay!" she whispered.  
  
The door opened just a crack, just enough for Mal to see the face of the tall boy with his long hair loose around his shoulders, and when he in turn saw that it was her, he threw the door wide and quickly stepped out of the shack.  
  
"Let's go," Mal said, diving back into the sea of singing citizens.  
  
_"It's a rumor, a legend, a mystery."  
  
"Something whispered in an alleyway or through a crack."  
  
"It's a rumor that's part of our history."_  
  
The scraggly lady offering up row after row of identical snowglobes was new, Jay and Mal didn't recall ever seeing her in the marketplace before, joining into the song with a line of her own.  
  
_"They say her royal grandmother will pay a royal sum, to someone who can bring the princess back!"_  
  
Mal and Jay each stole a snowglobe with their sticky fingers, the trinkets small enough to fit just so inside their jacket pockets, and again they went on their way moving further into the marketplace.  Up some steps, into the next level of the square, where a second boy with hair white like the snow was leaning over a railing in search of someone.  
  
"Over here, Carlos," Mal said when she was close enough.  
  
Carlos turned, and Mal tossed the purloined apple to him before glancing over her shoulder and taking a look back into the crowd.  
  
"They're singing again," she grumbled.  "Why are they always singing?"  
  
"Everyone needs a hobby," Jay shrugged.  "Time to sing along."  
  
The trio manned three different market stands of their own, side by side, just as some passersby started to come their way.  For Mal and her crew may have been the shiftiest thieves this side of The Great Wall, but that didn't mean they didn't delight in putting on a show.  
  
_"Come buy this royal painting, it's genuine, I swear,"_  Mal sang.  
  
_"Prince Benjamin's pajamas, get 'em by the pair,"_  Carlos gestured to his stand's clothes rack.  
  
_"I swiped this from the castle, it's lined with real fur,"_  Jay brandished a heavenly soft coat.  
  
_"It could be worth a fortune, if it belonged to her,"_  their three voices came together.  
  
Some newcomers, woefully unaware of the crew's reputation, stopped to have a look at what they offered for sale.  
  
"Genuine?" a woman repeated, curiously eyeing the canvas Mal held in her hands.  
  
"Would this face lie to you?" Mal wickedly said.  
  
Beside them, the woman's husband took an interest in the silken pajamas.  
  
"These really belonged to the crown prince?"  
  
"A gift from her majesty Cinderella back in the day, each pair hand-sewn by the mice themselves," Carlos grinned.  
  
A third unsuspecting patron had his attention drawn, coming in close to check out the fur coat Jay showed off.  
  
"Could this really have been Princess Evie's?" he questioned.  
  
Jay shrugged playfully.  
  
"She's royalty, right?  Expensive taste is in her job description."  
  
They were experts, and soon bags of coins were changing hands; from the unsuspecting patrons to Mal and her team.  They sent the happy customers off with a painting, a pair of pajamas, and a fur coat—before stashing the money in their pockets and digging around inside their stands to set up an identical painting, an identical pair of pajamas, and an identical fur coat.  
  
"One born every minute," Mal sneered, tossing a coin bag to herself and leading the boys along through the rest of the square.  
  
"So what's the word?" Carlos asked, slyly sticking his apple core in the jacket pocket of some guy he passed.  "Did you find us a place?"  
  
"I said I'd take care of it, didn't I?" Mal said.  "The abandoned theater, this afternoon.  Jay?  You got the girls?"  
  
"Do I ever," he smirked.  
  
At the edge of the marketplace they ducked into a run-down building, climbing all the flights of stairs until they reached their hideout at the top, an equally run-down loft with the trio's odds and ends scattered among the place and Mal's graffiti all over the walls.  They stuffed their money into the broken down fridge they regarded as their "safe", and Mal went to the window, throwing it open and looking down into the crowded streets below.  
  
" _It's the rumor, the legend, the mystery_ ," she sang.  " _It's the missing Princess Evie who will help us fly, you and I friends will go down in history...we'll find a girl to play the part and teach her what to say, dress her up, take her to her 'Granny'. Imagine the reward the dear Grand Duchess then would pay, who else could pull it off but you and me? We'll be rich!_ "  
  
_"We'll be rich!"_  Jay and Carlos chorused.  
  
_"We'll be out!"_  
  
_"We'll be out!"_  
  
_"And this city here will have some more to talk about!"_  the three agreed.  
  
Mal went out the window, grabbing ahold of the fire escape ladder and sliding all the way back down to ground level, where people were dancing in the streets.  
  
_"Have you heard, rumor's here in Cinderellasburg!"  
  
"Have you heard what they're saying on the street?"_  
  
Jay and Carlos were right after her, and again the three weaved their way through the crowd.  
  
_"Have you heard, rumor's here in Cinderellasburg!"  
  
"Have you heard, I mean what do you suppose?"  
  
"A fascinating mystery?"  
  
"The biggest con in history!" _ Mal cheered.  
  
_"The missing Princess Evie..."_  
  
_"Alive or dead?"_  
  
Carlos shrugged.  
  
"Who knows?"

 

* * *

 

 

She sat perfectly still as the finishing touches from the brush and the curling iron were put on her hair, and then a small, cracked hand mirror was being thrust into her hands.  
  
"All done, E!"  
  
E took as good a look as she could through the splintered glass, beaming from ear to ear.  Her brown hair had been expertly turned to dark blue, sitting atop her head like the waves of a deep ocean she'd dreamed of but never seen.  
  
"...Dizzy, I love it!" she gasped.  
  
"Really??" the young girl at her side bounced on her feet, hurriedly peeling off stained gloves of blue.  
  
E put the mirror down on the bathroom counter and stood up from the chair she'd been in, pulling Dizzy into a tight hug.  
  
"Absolutely," she assured her.  
  
Dizzy held on to her even tighter, the hug lasted longer than normal.  
  
"...I'm going to miss you so much, E," Dizzy sniffed.  
  
"And I'll miss you so much too..." E pulled away a bit and tilted Dizzy's chin up.  "Secret time?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"...I'm scared," the older girl laughed nervously.  
  
Scared she was.  The orphanage had been her entire life, her entire life that she could remember, at least.  Found wandering the streets of Auradon as a little girl with no memory of who she was or where she came from, the orphanage was all she'd ever known.  And now, at seventeen, she was about to be out on her own. Completely on her own.  Nothing but a suitcase of paltry, meager possessions picked up over the years.  
  
"You can always come back!" Dizzy eagerly told her.  
  
E shook her head, wafting her brand new blue.  
  
"...No, I can't," she said with a sad little smile.  
  
By no means would she miss the orphanage and the psychotic reign of the matron, no. But she would miss Dizzy, with her glasses and her crazy hair and her undeterred passion for cosmetology, Dizzy who was the closest thing E had ever had to a little sister. She would miss the other kids in the orphanage, each and every one who had grown to mean so much to her.    
  
"In a few years I'll be out too," Dizzy said on a hopeful note.  
  
E's smile was brighter now.  
  
"That's right, you will.  And we'll find each other, just like we've always talked about, and we'll be together again."  
  
She took Dizzy's hand and led her back into the room they shared, where her suitcase sat on the rickety little bed.  The door was slammed open then, the crazy-haired matron breezing into the room.  
  
"Aren't you ready yet??" she demanded of E.  
  
The girl sighed heavily.  
  
"One second," she told her.  
  
Dizzy's eyes were watering behind her glasses.  E drew her in for another hug, the tightest one yet, never wanting to let her go.  
  
"This isn't goodbye, Dizzy.  It's just...'see you later'."  
  
Dizzy nodded.  
  
"...See you later, E."  
  
The matron rolled her eyes, came further into the room and dragged E off by the arm.  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah, get out already."  
  
E had just enough time to grab her suitcase, and then she was gone.  Kids yelled out their goodbyes and gave her their waves as she was tugged all throughout the orphanage, being let go in the foyer to take her blue trench coat out of the large front closet and shrug into it.  Then it was out into the snow she went, shivering right away, bundling her coat tighter and wishing her gloves weren't fingerless.  
  
"I set you up with a job in a bakery," the matron unlocked the front gates.  "Follow the road along the outskirts of the city and turn left at the fork in the road.  Turn  _left,_  E."  
  
"I heard you, turn left.  Job in a bakery...um, where exactly am I supposed to live?"  
  
"Take that up with the baker," the matron pushed her through the gate, starting her down the snow-buried road that crossed through the woods and led to Cinderellasburg.  
  
And just like that, the wrought-iron gates slammed shut behind her, and she was on her own.  
  
With a deep breath, she started with one foot, then the other, her boots sinking into the deep snow as she followed the path.  It was a comforting sight, at least, the look of the sparse woods glistening with white, like something out of a painting.  Fresh flakes had started to fall during her walk, and she could see the way it speckled her blue hair.  It was almost meditative, listening to the crunches of her boots in the snow.  She saw the metal signpost up ahead on the path before she reached it; left pointing the route to the aforementioned bakery, right pointing the route to the heart of the city.  
  
Turn left.  
  
Left to a life of day in, day out, flour-in-her-hair monotony.  A life of pleasant smells and warm ovens and telling people things like "there goes the baker with his tray, like always".  The same old bread and rolls to sell.  Monotony.  Every morning just the same.  It was a steady life, a stable life, all anyone in the crumbling kingdom could ever ask for nowadays.    
  
But not E.  
  
Her free hand reached up and clutched the charm dangling from the end of her necklace, a shining heart of ruby sporting a crown of gold.  They told her she'd been clutching it the exact same way over a decade ago when she'd been brought to the orphanage, and all her life, she'd marveled at the inscription etched into the back of it—"Together in Villeneuve".  E had no memories. No family.  But she did have this necklace, her one clue to the past.  
  
"...There's nothing for me to the left, I know that much," she said quietly to herself.  "But if I go  _right_..."  
  
She shuffled a few steps to the right, but stopped herself.  
  
"...Oh, come on, E.  This isn't a fairytale.  There's no magic adventure finally waiting for me out there, or a journey of self-discovery.  This is the real world, and in the real world it's the middle of December and I don't have a place to sleep tonight."  
  
She turned herself to the left of the fork in the road, shuffling a few steps that way too before once more stopping herself.  
  
"...But then again," she glanced over her shoulder, where she could just make out the faintest glimmer of the city off in the distance.  A cold wind brushed by, picking up some powder and sprinkling it along the path to the right.  "...Believing in a little magic never hurt anyone."  
  
A bit of a stronger gust blew just then, chilling her but also giving her a nudge towards Cinderellasburg.  She couldn't run towards a life of safety and stability, not without the answers she'd been waiting years and years for the chance to search for.  She couldn't settle into a new life when her old one was still such a mystery to her.  
  
So she went to the right.  
  
_"...Heart don't fail me now, courage don't desert me.  Don't turn back now that we're here..."_  
  
A few more cautious, crunching steps into the snow, getting further and further down the path.  
  
_"People always say life is full of choices, no one ever mentions...fear."_  
  
E held her necklace tight in her hand, pausing to note just how wide and empty the expanse of the picturesque woods was.  
  
_"Or how the world can seem so vast, on a journey...to the past."_  
  
Her steps picked up, growing more and more confident as she sang to herself. This was where it would all begin, the start of her homecoming, that grand magical adventure where she'd find what she'd been looking for all her life.  And if she failed?  Then she knew the way.  She'd come right back to that fork in the road and make the trip to the left.  But no one was going to say she didn't try.  
  
_"Somewhere down this road, I know someone's waiting, years of dreams just can't be wrong!  Arms will open wide, I'll be safe and wanted, finally home where I belong!"  
_  
The excitement of that thought broke her into a short little run, kicking up snow with her boots like she was a tiny little girl again.  
  
_"Well, starting now I'm learning fast, on this journey...to the past!"_  
  
A fair way down the path, here was something E had never known about before; a little house, all alone among the trees, where a mother sat bundled up on the front porch and watched as her little girl and her father played out in the snow.  E and the other kids had had the occasional trip into the city now and then, but so much of the world outside the tiny radius of the orphanage was lost on them.  E had no idea such happy little lives were being led just down the road from them.  
  
_"Home, love, family, there was once a time I must've had them too.  Home, love, family, I will never be complete until I find you."_  
  
She bounded through the snow, the thought of unraveling her past lifting her spirits and her heart.  She skipped along and kicked up even more snow, watching it fall back to earth like pixie dust and giggling happily.  
  
_"One step at a time, one hope then another, who knows where this road may go?"_  
  
Balancing her suitcase, she held her arms out and crept across a fallen tree trunk, so lighthearted she felt like the next winter breeze would simply sweep her up and carry her away.  
  
_"Back to who I was, on to find my future, things my heart still needs to know!"_  
  
With a jump she leapt down from the trunk and twirled around on the path, feeling the snowflakes ghosting across her cheeks as she did so.  
  
_"Yes!  Let this be a sign!  Let this road be mine!  Let it lead me to my past!  And bring me home..."_  
  
There, over the hilltop, was the sprawling expanse of Cinderellasburg.  A beacon of Auradon, an endless map of promises stretching all the way to the horizon, the magnificent sight of it briefly taking E's breath away before she got it back and sang her last verse with all the strength and power of a girl who was well on her way to taking control of her destiny.  
  
_"At laaaaaast!"_


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't as if E had never been into the city before, wasn't as if she were some hayseed from the countryside wandering lost and wide-eyed in the once-glittering streets of Cinderellasburg, it was just that...boy, traversing the city  _alone_ was a whole new world. She found it hard to believe that so many people could be crammed into one place, and that was saying something, growing up in an orphanage where a "first come, first served" policy on cots meant that E was often opting for the musty wooden floor so Dizzy could have a bed for the night.  
  
Cinderellasburg was once the shining seat of Auradon, but it, along with the rest of the country, had fallen far from grace ever since the villains invaded and the royal family was slain. E may not have known even herself, but she knew history. Auradon had been leaderless for over a decade now, and was scarcely better off than the abandoned slums of the Isle of the Lost where the villains had been imprisoned before they all died in the invasion. And scarcely better off showed too, in the way E was shoved and shunted through the crowds by rude and grumpy Cinderellasburg denizens who used to be the pictures of goodness and virtue.  
  
She suddenly realized she had no clue what she was doing in coming to Cinderellasburg. Utilizing her newfound freedom from the orphanage to discover her past, sure, but where exactly was one supposed to start? Knocking on doors saying "Hi, know anything about a little lost girl turned over to the orphanage eleven years ago?"   
  
As if that would narrow it down, a lot of lost girls and boys turned up at the orphanage eleven years ago in the aftermath of the villains' attack. They had started with the king's family and made their way through Cinderellasburg until the royal guard had finally beat them back. But the damage had already been done, and the ripple effect of a leaderless country spread through the kingdom quickly enough. No, E really didn't know what she was doing coming to this ruin of a city looking for answers, but maybe she didn't have to know. Maybe there were still small glimmers of magic left in Auradon. And maybe that magic looked like a train station and a ticket booth looming right ahead of her through the crowd.  
  
She had very little money to her name, only a handful of bills and coins she'd collected over the years, but maybe, with a little luck, it would be enough. E tried to slip through everyone as daintily as she could, not looking to shove anyone aside the way they'd shoved her, and in a very slow and rough process, she finally broke through and found her way to the ticket window where no line awaited her. A large man with an unkempt mustache was greeted by her beaming smile.  
  
"Hi! How much for a ticket to Villeneuve?"  
  
The large man with the unkempt mustache apparently cared little for beaming smiles.   
  
"Keep dreamin', kid," he sneered.  
  
E's smile slowly faded.  
  
"...Okay, I know I don't have much money, but—"  
  
"There ain't any tickets anywhere," the man in the booth interrupted. "You think you're the only one tryin' to get out of Auradon? Think again. No tickets, no escaping."  
  
E's frown was puzzled, and she raised an eyebrow.  
  
"If you don't have any tickets for sale then why are you even open?" she demanded.  
  
"Why are you asking questions?!" the man snapped, before yanking some tattered blinds down over the window and shutting E out.  
  
"Hey!!" she rapped her knuckles against the window, but went completely ignored.  
  
With a heavy sigh she readjusted her grip on her suitcase and started to shuffle away, just as a hunched-over old woman was shuffling near.  
  
"...Heard Mal and her crew snatched up the last tickets out of Auradon weeks ago," she mumbled, almost as if she were talking to herself.  
  
E didn't say anything, thinking she wasn't in on the conversation, but when she saw the old woman looking expectantly at her, she slowly came near.  
  
"Who's Mal?" she asked.  
  
"Con artist. Street thief. A dirty no-good," the woman bitterly spat. "And your only chance of getting out of here."  
  
"Where can I find her?" E asked.   
  
"Ha! Nobody finds Mal unless she wants to be found," the woman scoffed. "...But I hear people spot her wandering around near the old castle from time to time."  
  
"The king's castle?"  
  
"Of course the king's castle, who else??"   
  
E's lips stuck out in a pout at being snapped at. Geez, Cinderellasburg was rude.  
  
"Okay, well, thank you," she nodded her head, determined to be the bigger person and end on a polite note.  
  
So E turned, and started to walk away.  
  
"...Um, which way to the king's—" she whirled back around, but the old woman had already disappeared.   
  
Another sigh, and she went on, toting her suitcase with her. Sure, the city was big, but a castle tended to stick out. She'd find it eventually.  
  
"Eventually" was beginning to look like "never in a million years" when the sky darkened with deep gray clouds and snow began to fall. Which reminded her that in turning down the path to the bakery, she'd also turned down a (hopefully) warm place to stay, and was now seemingly homeless in December. So there was that.   
  
Legs tired from walking the length of the city, E picked out a bit of sidewalk to sit and rest on, a decent distance away from the bustle in the hopes that she wouldn't be stepped on or kicked over (which was apparently a definite possibility). She rubbed her hands together as the snow fell, wishing she had something more than fingerless gloves, but alas, the orphanage didn't partake in the luxuries that were  _whole_  gloves. She had just closed her eyes—reevaluating her recent life choices and scolding the little dreamer in her head that told her to go skipping off to Cinderellasburg with a smile and a song—when she felt something warm and wet touching at her fingertips.  
  
Her eyes opened to find a scruffy orange dog flecked with snow licking at her hands, then looking up at her with big brown eyes when he'd caught her attention.  
  
"Well hello," E giggled, pulling her hand away to scratch the dog's head. His tail wagged happily. "Shouldn't you be at home? It's pretty cold out here."  
  
The dog sneezed.  
  
"...Or maybe you're like me. Maybe you don't have a home, or a family."  
  
He started licking her fingers again, eliciting another giggle from E.  
  
"Oh, I wish Dizzy could see you, she  _always_ wanted a dog at the orphanage. She'd say you were a funny little dude."  
  
The dog sat back, tail swishing in the snow.  
  
"...Dude," E repeated thoughtfully. "I kind of like it. Okay Dude, how about you and I stick together in the big city? Lend me a paw a try to sniff out the old abandoned castle, huh?"  
  
She was of course joking, but Dude suddenly sprang to attention, bounding to his four feet and tugging at the bottom of E's trench coat with his teeth.  
  
"Whoa, hey, I was kidding!" she said.  
  
But Dude was growling urgently, and it brought E to her feet. With a sharp bark he took off, puttering quickly down the road with E grabbing her suitcase and following right after him. They went down a lot of dirty, dusty alleyways, and E was sure she was being led astray; no way would the king's castle be around this part of town. But lo and behold, when Dude ran out of one alleyway and into the open, there it was. Tall, towering, touching the clouded sky, it was a wonder E didn't see it off in the distance. Dirty gray walls and rust red rooftops sheathed with snow, a shadow of the grandeur it must have been back in the day. Looking rather looming and imposing against the backdrop of a slate gray sky, E couldn't imagine anyone lingering near here if they absolutely didn't have to.  
  
"...The royal castle."

 

 

* * *

 

Mal impatiently awaited the concussion as she repeatedly banged her head on the table in front of her. 

"Next!" she gruffly snapped, the word ushering away the young girl with long red hair atop the theater stage.  
  
Sitting on either side of Mal at the table were Jay and Carlos, the three of them "holding auditions", so to speak. Jay, kicked back in his chair with his feet on the table and his arms folded, was rather the opposite picture of Mal.  
  
"Of all the desperate girls in Cinderellasburg not  _one_  knows how to pretend to be a princess?" she demanded out loud.  
  
"I don't see why you're so picky. It's been eleven years, people grow up. The Grand Duchess wouldn't know her own granddaughter now if she smacked her in the face," Jay said.  
  
"Just pick a girl already," Carlos agreed. "All she has to do is look pretty, we can teach her the rest."  
  
Mal ignored them.  
  
"I said next!" she called out.  
  
Next, in fact, was not a young girl around the missing princess' age, but a scrawny stick of a woman dripping in furs, dropping them to the floor in a dramatic shrug as she took center stage.  
  
" _Grandma._  It's  _me_. Princess  _Evie,_ " she crooned.  
  
The three of them stared blankly.  
  
"...Get her out of here," Mal grumbled, burying her face in her hand.  
  
The boys were out of their seats in a second, hurrying on stage.  
  
"Come on lady, you're taking up space," Jay held her by the arm and escorted her offstage while Carlos scooped up the furs and trailed after them.   
  
Mal stayed behind at the table, again looking for that concussion. When Jay and Carlos returned, Mal grudgingly stood up.  
  
"Forget it, we're calling it a day. Let's blow this popsicle stand."  
  
They gathered their jackets from the backs of their chairs, and after shrugging into them Jay went around backstage to shoo away the rest of the waiting girls, and Mal's ears caught him telling a few to "look him up sometime".  
  
"Jay!" she called his name, flicking off the lights with the busted-up switch by the backdoor.   
  
He rejoined Mal and Carlos, and they left the theater to walk through the snowy streets. Jay yanked his red beanie over his head when he saw the snow falling, then roughly shoved his hands in his pockets.  
  
"So we're giving up?" Carlos glumly asked. "No scheme? No piles of reward money when we bring 'the princess' back to her grandmother?"  
  
"Are you insane?" Mal narrowed her eyes. "A decade of reward money just building up interest and a sad old woman just waiting to give it away? No way are we giving up on that. Our princess is here somewhere, I just know it."  
  
They approached the city's square, more densely populated than the back alley near the theater, and without even looking Mal swiped a bag of coins straight from the coat pocket of a passing man.  
  
"With the Grand Duchess' reward we'll be set for life," she explained. "We'll be free from Cinderellasburg and free from Auradon,  _done_ with this prison they call a kingdom."  
  
"That would be nice," Carlos wistfully said.  
  
When they crossed the city and finally reached their destination of the abandoned castle, Mal stopped them short right at the gates.  
  
"What?" Jay questioned.  
  
Mal pointed into the snow, where boot tracks not belonging to any of them and the prints of something scurrying around on four legs littered the courtyard. Mal lowered her voice, carefully approaching the gate.  
  
"...Someone's here."

 

 

* * *

 

The castle was downright eerie, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Haunting winds moaned and groaned through the hallways and chambers, most likely slipping in from a shattered window somewhere. Even Dude was hesitant in his steps as he trotted alongside E through the dim corridors, like he too could sense something.

  
The magnificent paintings on almost every inch of the walls, the statues, the tapestries, the furnishings of the rooms, it all tugged at E's heart—this was once a home. A home filled with light and love, regality and grace. Not belonging to the royals, but belonging to a _family._  The king, his queen, their children, and all of it so tragically ended. Goosebumps touched E's skin that she so hoped were from the cold, she didn't remotely want to imagine it was from something unseen and ghostly, watching her from the shadows.  
  
It certainly felt like ghosts might walk the halls, stirring up dust, brushing aside cobwebs. Entirely spooky. She was just glad she had Dude at her side. Through an inconspicuous, unassuming archway they passed, and E entered the next part of the castle with a gasp. A vast, cavernous ballroom. Ringed with tall marble columns that looked as if they were once golden in color, faded blue banners dipping and rising in waves along the walls, a grandiose chandelier hanging above, watching all. E could feel it right away, that this place used to be the home of music, laughter, festivities, all manner of parties and celebrations.  
  
But when the awe faded, and she and Dude came in further, she saw it. The thrones toppled over, the tears and shreds in the blue banners, splintered cracks in the marble floor, black spots like scorch marks plastering the walls. And then E remembered her history—this was where the invasion began. Where Maleficent, the worst villain in the land, appeared through dark magic and brought her fellow villains along with her. This was where war was first waged, and so many lives were lost in one fell swoop.  
  
...And yet, there was something else here. As she and Dude wandered over to the ghost of a buffet table, with ornate candelabras and empty serving trays of the finest silver (all covered in cobwebs), E felt more than just war and darkness. She could feel the celebrations that once lit up this ballroom, holidays and anniversaries and birthday parties. Orchestras playing as feet danced and bodies twirled and warmth filled the now-frigid chamber.  _That_  she felt close to her heart, not the evil and grief that once befell this very room.  
  
"This place..." she frowned, unsure of this feeling. "It's like...a memory from a dream."  
  
Dude looked up at her, tilting his head, but E had dropped her suitcase and started to make slow, studious rounds through the ballroom.  
  
_"...Dancing beasts, dark west wings. Things I almost remember...and a song someone sings, once upon a December."_  
  
Dude followed her out to the center of the ballroom floor, where E was taking in the sight of the dull, dull daylight trying to fight its way through the windows.  
  
_"Someone holds me safe and warm, beasts take flight in a magic storm, two hearts waltzing gracefully across my memory..."_  
  
E got swept up in her own singing, finding herself closing her eyes and twirling through the ballroom, imagining, imagining what it must have been like to be here for the parties and wonderful music. She could see it unfolding perfectly in her mind's eye, the dresses and ballgowns gliding across an untarnished floor like the bells of flowers, crisp suits brandishing badges and epaulettes close by. The chandelier lit, the room bathed in light, figures dancing through wonderful whirlwinds of color and sound, and E dancing there with them in her own private world. She bowed to an imaginary partner, fell in step with music that didn't exist.  
  
_"Someone holds me safe and warm, beasts take flight in a magic storm, two hearts waltzing gracefully across my memory..."_  
  
Suddenly E wasn't in her trench coat, her boots, her fingerless gloves; suddenly she too was in a dress, a long and glittering deep blue and wearing  _evening gloves_  of red. Gold and ruby jewelry fitted neatly in her hair, around her neck, dangling from her ears.  
_  
"Far away, long ago, glowing dim as an ember, things my heart used to know. Things it yearns to remember..."_  
  
One final twirl willed her to open her eyes, and the fantasy shattered away when she found herself face to face with a massive painting of the royal family hanging proudly on the back wall. Brushstroke after brushstroke creating the poised and posed figures of the king, the queen, their son, and their two daughters.  
_  
"...And a song someone sings...once upon a December."_  
  
"Why is  _everyone_  always bursting into song? Why is this a thing??" said an exasperated voice behind E.  
  
She gasped, and wildly spun around. In all her eyes-closed, daydreaming dancing she never saw or even heard anyone sneaking up on her, a young girl with wavy purple hair, flanked by a tall and muscular boy and a smaller, meeker-looking one.  
  
"Can anyone explain this to me?" the scowling girl went on, looking back and forth from E to her friends. "What is in the water in this town that makes everyone just start..."  
  
Something made her trail off, made her piercing green eyes go wide. Something like the mystery intruder standing with the royal portrait as her backdrop, looking strikingly similar to the young princess whose features Mal's own expert paintbrush had forged many a time in efforts to make a fast buck. The same impossibly brown eyes and proud face, every bit a grown-up princess.  
  
"Alright, you got ten seconds to explain before you get thrown out into the snow," the muscular boy crossed his arms intimidatingly.  
  
But the girl in front elbowed him, stepping back a bit and lowering her voice.  
  
"Jay, Carlos, look."  
  
The boys followed her pointing finger, gazes traveling to the painting and comparing the girl standing in front of it.  
  
"...Ohhhh," they realized together, faces lighting up with mischievous grins.  
  
Dude stood protectively at E's feet, growling softly and suddenly catching the eye of the smaller boy.  
  
"Who is  _this_?" his scheming grin turned into a gleeful one, and when Dude saw he meant no harm, he curiously padded forward.  
  
E carefully lowered her guard as well, watching the boy crouch down to have Dude lick at his face.  
  
"I call him Dude. We've been lifelong friends of about half an hour," she joked, then met the piercing green eyes that were still demanding an explanation. "...Are you Mal?"  
  
"...I might be. Depends on who's asking," Mal sauntered forward.  
  
E was a tad put off by the response.  
  
"I'm E. I'm trying to get to Villeneuve and someone told me you were the girl to see," she said curtly.   
  
"...Villeneuve, huh? How about that," Mal's smile was almost sinister, another thing E didn't quite like.  
  
Mal glanced over her shoulder at the sounds of Carlos' laughter with the dog in his arms.  
  
"You! Focus!" she snapped him to attention, then pointed a finger at E. "You, walk with me."  
  
She draped an arm over E's shoulder and pulled her along, with Carlos, Jay, and Dude close behind.  
  
"So, Villeneuve. What makes a girl like you want to travel so far when you've got everything you could ever want right here in the royal city?"  
  
Carlos and Jay snickered at the insinuation that Cinderellasburg was a shining beacon of possibility. E looked down at her hands, distractedly wringing them.  
  
"...I have nothing in Cinderellasburg, actually. This is going to sound crazy, but I don't have a home. I don't have a family. I don't even have my memories," E quietly explained.  
  
Mal brought them to a stop.  
  
"Come again?"   
  
E shyly shrugged.  
  
"I was found alone on the city streets when I was six with no idea who I was, or where I came from. I was taken to the orphanage on the outskirts of town and that's where I grew up, but...I have no memory of the first six years of my life."  
  
Jay slithered around in front of her like a snake, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Now  _that_ is interesting," he smiled at her.  
  
E frowned.  
  
"Interesting? Why interesting?"  
  
"E, you look like a smart girl," Mal said, almost chidingly. "I'm sure a smart girl like you knows that eleven years ago, the kingdom's villains escaped from the Isle of the Lost and tried to take over, and in the invasion only the Grand Duchess Potts escaped this castle with her life."  
  
"Right," E nodded.  
  
"Wrong!" Mal argued.  
  
Carlos, with Dude snuggly in the crook of one arm, pointed at the painting just behind them.  
  
"Princess Evie, the youngest daughter. She was never found, alive  _or_  dead," he told her. "It's been the kingdom's biggest mystery all these years."  
  
"The Grand Duchess even has a reward out for anyone who can find her granddaughter and bring them back together," Jay added.  
  
"...And the three of you are after someone to play the part of a princess so you can get that reward money," E guessed.  
  
Mal put on her best innocent face, her hand coming to rest on her chest like she couldn't believe the audacity.  
  
"What makes you say that?"  
  
"A woman at the train station told me you were a con artist, a street thief, and a dirty no-good."  
  
"Blatant truths, all of them, but this time we're sincere," Mal blithely lied. "This time we're doing this purely out of the goodness of our hearts to reunite a poor, lonely woman with the only family she has left."  
  
E looked all three of them squarely in the eye.  
  
"...So, what? Are you saying you think  _I'm_ Princess Evie??" she questioned incredulously.  
  
"Look at the painting," Carlos pointed again.  
  
E turned around to see what the rest of them saw, not noticing before but kind of, sort of beginning to now. The little girl in the portrait did bear a resemblance to her, save for the brown hair in place of blue.  
  
"The princess went missing at the age of six. You turned up lost at the age of six," Jay nudged her with a wink.  
  
"Something makes you want to go to Villeneuve. The Grand Duchess is in Villeneuve," Carlos said.  
  
"And if you don't have any memory of then, who's to say you  _didn't_ come from right here in this very castle, growing up with birthdays in this very ballroom?" Mal shrugged, a gleam in her eyes with E's back turned to her.  
  
"...Me? A princess?" E breathed, utterly fixated on the royal portrait.  
  
Mal came up beside her, hiding her sly smile.  
  
"This is Auradon, after all. Anything is possible, E."  
  
Was this it? Did fate and luck and a little orange dog really lead her to the start of her adventure? Was this really the first step in uncovering her past, about to unfold right there in front of her?  
  
"...Surely if the Grand Duchess saw me, she'd know right away if I was her granddaughter or not," E mused.  
  
"Surely," Mal nodded.  
  
"And if I'm not, then at the very least I'm still in Villeneuve, where  _something_ ,  _somewhere_ will lead me to my real history, my real past."  
  
"Four tickets to Villeneuve. Get them while they're hot," Mal patted her jacket pocket. "Are you in?"  
  
E wanted to think it over, to take a moment to process all of this before making another grand and whimsical life choice. It didn't quite work out that way.  
  
"I'm in," she nodded.  
  
Dude barked excitedly from Carlos' arms.  
  
"The dog stays," Mal bluntly threw in.  
  
"What??" Carlos and E blurted together.  
  
"The dog stays," Mal repeated.  
  
"The dog goes," E firmly said.  
  
"We don't need to take a dog to Villeneuve."  
  
"But he likes us!" Carlos argued.  
  
"You won't even notice him, Mal," Jay waved them off uninterestedly.  
  
"I notice everything."  
  
The four spun on their feet and bickered all the way down the length of the ballroom floor, where E retrieved her suitcase. Finally, Mal, simply tired of all the arguing, relented, allowing Dude to tag along as if she really had a say in the matter in the first place.  
  
"You guys, we are out of here!" Mal said brightly with the glimmer back in her eyes. "Next stop, Villeneuve. Grand Duchess Potts, may I present to you her royal majesty, Princess Evie!"    
  
E gave her a little shove at the dramatics, but couldn't deny the excitement building in her heart.  _Together in Villeneuve_. The inscription on her necklace, one of the few pleasant constants in her life, finally becoming a reality. The start of her adventure, the first step in uncovering her past.  
  
But high, high above them, unseen in the balcony, the dark, sinister eyes of a pitch black raven watched the four crossing the ballroom. Watched one in particular with a wicked glower as a yellowed, razor-sharp beak parted to speak.  
  
"...Princess Evie."


	4. Chapter 4

The royal castle was no luxury suite on a good day, and especially not so in the miserable middle of December. Shattered windows and collapsed roofing made for terrible drafts and chills swirling throughout the entirety of the castle, but there at least were somewhat cozy nooks and crannies deep within the rafters that Diablo could nestle into at the end of the day. There at least was that.

But over the gray, icy waters of the sea, not so much.  
  
Like steam the frigid air rose up from the waves beneath him, chilling the underside of his wings, and like a winter storm he was blasted with it from the front as well as he beat his wings towards the Isle of the Lost. He wouldn't call himself wistful, he was too smart for that, too smart to be caught reminiscing about the past and things that couldn't be changed. But seeing the princess there, at the castle again after more than a decade...he knew that face anywhere. The mocking face of their failure, their lost invasion, the downfall of his master. No, Diablo wouldn't let himself be called wistful or anything remotely close to sentimental, but something about the sight of the princess that got away sent him braving the cruel elements for a trip back to where it all started.  
  
The magic barrier had been long since shattered ever since the villains escaped, and with all of them having perished in the invasion, there had never been a need for it to be recast over the island. Diablo flew right in when he reached land, making his way to the abandoned edge of downtown and perching his frozen self on a rooftop. Once upon a time, The Isle and Auradon were the antitheses of each other. Looking around now, his first time back in eleven years, it was striking how much the two now resembled one another.  
  
There, Diablo thought as he once again took flight, was at least one victory in the name of evil—bringing the kingdom to ruin. No, the villains didn't rule, and no, Maleficent hadn't completely brought an end to the royal line, but yes, they collapsed Auradon right from its very core. The once-glittering kingdom of magic and promise was now a dull, gray ghost scarcely any better than the slums of The Isle.  
  
Not a soul—poor, unfortunate, or otherwise—was left here, and anything else besides the animal familiar of the mistress of evil would be spooked by the eerie way the winds moaned and howled through the empty streets and alleyways. Diablo found the castle he was looking for easily enough, his beady eyes taking a quick glance at the tattered and torn wares spilling out from the entrance of Maleficent's old shop below. He flew in through the balcony, the doors ripped halfway off their hinges and hanging limply in the wind. A fine powder of snow dusted the floor of the master bedroom, stirred by his arrival and a slight breeze from outside.  
  
"...Not exactly what it used to be," Diablo muttered, eyes adjusting to the dim interior.  
  
"But then again, neither am I!!" someone cackled from within the shadows.  
  
A startled Diablo squawked and leapt from his perch on the back of a chair, wings flapping wildly.  
  
An unmistakable horned figure, emerging from the dark with another cackle and a snort like she'd just told the funniest joke in the world. Diablo's beak dropped wide open as he settled back onto the chair.  
  
"...Mistress??" he gaped.  
  
"Diablo, my familiar familiar," Maleficent threw her arms wide with a dramatic flourish.  
  
Diablo's eyes narrowed, squinted, like he was trying to see his way through an illusion.  
  
"...You're alive??" he couldn't wrap his mind around it.  
  
He'd watched from above all those years ago as his master's scepter misfired and lit her ablaze in a plume of green. When the smoke and flames had cleared, Maleficent was gone. Not a trace left behind, save for the cold, lifeless scepter clattering to the marble floor.  
  
"Me? Alive?"  Maleficent ambled over to the balcony doors and looked out into the winter wasteland. "Hardly."  
  
"I saw you vanish with my own eyes, how are you not dead?" Diablo asked. "What happened?"  
  
"Those... _fairies_ ," Maleficent stuck out her tongue like the word left a nasty taste on it. "Those three little goody goods. Firing their goody good magic at me the very instant I fire dark magic at them, completely backfiring my spell and zapping me back to this hole without my scepter."  
  
Diablo cocked his head, narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Are you alright? You don't sound like yourself," he noted.  
  
Her words, her mannerisms, all drastically different from the Maleficent he'd last seen laying waste to the royal family. The Maleficent he'd last seen laying waste to the royal family was not the type to refer to Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather as "those three little goody goods". It was almost as if she wasn't even the same villain anymore.  
  
Almost as if being on the island had addled her brain.  
  
"Of course I'm not alright!" she snapped, whirling around, again dramatically. "Stuck here on this island prison for a decade, magic-less without my scepter!"  
  
"Mistress, the barrier was never sealed again after you and the other villains broke through it. Magic has been able to reach The Isle all along, and even without your scepter—"  
  
"Even without my scepter the attack from the Three Good Fairies left me weakened, drained of my powers,  _useless_  without the magic stored within the scepter," Maleficent explained. "You think I would've stayed here twiddling my thumbs for ten years if I could've just popped back over to Auradon this whole time?"  
  
"Then you need your scepter," Diablo mused. He had kept it, all this time, hidden it deep within the ruins of the castle.  
  
"Why bother?" Maleficent collapsed into a lounge chair and waved him off. "The royal family is dead, Auradon is just as decrepit as The Isle, and there's no point in bringing my scepter back. There's nothing left for me to do."  
  
"...One got away."  
  
Maleficent blinked boredly at the raven.  
  
"Come again?"  
  
Diablo lifted his wings, took to the air just long enough to breeze across the room and settle in on Maleficent's shoulder.  
  
"You  _thought_ the royal family was dead. I did too. Until a strikingly familiar sight stumbled into the old castle just yesterday. The king's littlest princess always did have an unforgettable face."  
  
Maleficent's eyes went wide with sudden understanding.  
  
" _Evie_ ," she harshly whispered.  
  
"Sporting blue hair now, but Princess Evie nonetheless."  
  
"How _dare_  she!!" Maleficent leapt to her feet. "Escaping the curse of death that I laid upon her family!"  
  
Diablo grinned wickedly. This sounded more like the Maleficent he used to know.  
  
"The girl has no memories of her childhood  _or_ her royal standing," Diablo informed her.  "But she plans to seek them out. If she were to remember, to take her place on the throne as ruler of Auradon and begin to restore order..."  
  
"Then all my hard work will have been for nothing," Maleficent clenched a fist, whipping her head around to look out the window and see the faint, faint outline of Auradon in the distance. "Oh, no. No no, we can't let this happen."  
  
A fiendish grin echoing her familiar's slipped into place across her own features.  
  
"We're just going to have to kill her ourselves," she said simply.  
  
"You might also like to know about one of her traveling companions. The princess isn't alone. She's being helped—albeit with ulterior motives—by a certain young girl by the name of Mal."  
  
Maleficent's face blanked for only a split second, and then her evil smile was back, accompanied by the most hysterical of laughter.  
  
"Oh, this is just too darn good to pass up!!" she snorted, only managing to compose herself just the slightest. "Diablo!"  
  
The raven snapped to attention, just waiting for the magic words.  
  
"Yes, master?"  
  
Maleficent's laughter died down, but that threatening smile remained, her eyes gleaming viciously as she looked out over Auradon.  
  
"...Bring me my scepter."

* * *

 

E felt just like Dizzy in all her excitement. She'd never ridden on a train before, and  _oh_ how it was already so much fun even though they'd only just barely gotten on their way. It wasn't what she was expecting, being one of the old-fashioned types with a steam engine and everything, but Mal had informed her that the modern electric trains they saw lingering in disrepair at the station were a luxury that neither they nor Auradon could afford. But it was only all the more fun for E, watching the pistons whirr and drag the train to life as she and Mal's crew chased it down and hopped aboard at the last minute (Carlos had picked the wrong day to accidentally oversleep and run late). It gave E a strange sense of deja vu when they ran after the train, which stumped her for a minute or two before she just shrugged and shook it off.

Mal, toting their bags along with Jay, led the way to their cabin as the train churned on, where Dude hopped right up onto the seat and made himself comfortable. Carlos was already never far from Dude's side, dropping down beside the dog and Jay in turn dropping down beside Carlos. It was only after Mal stuffed all their luggage overhead and took a reluctant seat next to E on the opposite side of the cabin that the reality of the ride ahead of them settled in. It was a long way to Villeneuve, and E and Mal's gang were strangers to each other with not a whole lot to say. Jay didn't let himself be perturbed by it for long, kicking back and deciding to try his hand at snoozing the majority of the trip, harshly urging Carlos to "Shh!" as the boy cooed and fawned over Dude.  
  
E's excitement faded into anxiousness as the wheels churned and Cinderellasburg faded further and further into the distance, and her fingers nervously busied themselves fiddling with her necklace. The constant movement out of the corner of her eye was grating on Mal's nerves, until finally she just looked over in mild annoyance.  
  
"What's that?" she asked.  
  
E stopped her fiddling and held the charm out for Mal to see, the heart with the gold crown sitting neatly atop it.  
  
"I've always had it. They say I was holding onto it for dear life when I was found and brought to the orphanage all those years ago. I have no idea who gave it to me, but..." E flipped the charm around, and Mal leaned in to read the "Together in Villeneuve" inscription on the back of it.  
  
"So that's your only clue to the past," Mal said.  
  
"Mhm."  
  
"Well quit messing with it," Mal suddenly snapped. "You've been fidgeting this whole time, it's annoying. And sit right, you're supposed to be a princess, remember? Princesses don't slouch."  
  
E at first didn't know what it was that made Mal seem so off-putting to her. Now she was starting to get the picture.  
  
"As if you would know what a princess is supposed to do," she fought back. "You're just a street schemer."  
  
"And you're just an optimistic orphan."  
  
E crossed her arms and glared out the window with a pouting "hmph", ending her part of the conversation right there.  
  
Mal rolled her eyes.  
  
"Listen, we're taking you to Grand Duchess Potts to find out if you're her long lost granddaughter. Looks or no looks, how is she ever going to believe you're Evie if you don't even act like a princess? I'm just trying to help you out."  
  
"...Mal? Do you really think I'm royalty?" E quietly asked, turning her head towards the girl.  
  
"Of course I do, there's no reason you can't be."  
  
"Then  _stop_  bossing me around," E narrowed her gaze and went back to ignoring Mal by glaring out the window.  
  
Jay, apparently not even remotely close to sleep yet, peeked one eye open and slyly smirked.  
  
"Score one for the princess," he teased.  
  
Mal grumbled to herself, and the four fell into silence.  
  
The scenery raced by outside, nothing but snowy hills and snow-laden trees as far as the eye could see. For someone who had never seen anything beyond the dingy rooftops of a crumbling city, E's attention was held out the window easily enough. At some point a little more than an hour later, Carlos scooped up Dude and stepped his way around a conked-out Jay to leave the cabin, making to wander up and down the aisle and take the chance to stretch his legs. Mal did the same just moments after he left, taking advantage of the room that had just been made in the cabin. E was steadfastly ignoring her, even as she stopped her confined pacing and took Carlos' seat directly opposite E.  
  
"Hey, look, the last thing I want to do is be the bigger person, but I think it's safe to just come right out and admit we've had a rough start," Mal began.  
  
E side-eyed her.  
  
"Yes, we have."  
  
Mal wasn't expecting quite so quick an agreement.  
  
"Well, you're hard to get along with," she said defensively.  
  
"Me??" E turned towards her. "You've only known me like, a day! You have no clue what I'm like to get along with!"  
  
"I'm getting one," Mal muttered under her breath, leaning back in the seat.  
  
E was going to stick her tongue out at her, but reconsidered.  
  
"I'm sorry for fidgeting, okay? I'm just nervous, that's all. I've never been outside Cinderellasburg," E said.  
  
"Neither have I, but you don't see me squirming."  
  
"Are you going to miss being away?"  
  
"What's to miss?" Mal scoffed. "My dirty run-down loft or the dirty run-down city that houses my dirty run-down loft?"  
  
"...I'm going to miss my Dizzy," E practically whispered, staring at her hands down in her lap.  
  
"Your what?"  
  
"Dizzy. A little girl at the orphanage. She's like my little sister, and I miss her so much already," E sighed forlornly. "She's such a light in the dark, always happy and upbeat in spite of everything, and she's talented too. She did this."  
  
E held up a strand of her blue hair.  
  
"Hm. Impressive for a little tyke," Mal mused.  
  
E nodded, and then went on.  
  
"I'll go back for her someday. When I have my memories, a home, a nice, stable life..."  
  
"That's a lot to ask for in Auradon," Mal petulantly said.  
  
"So is turning an orphan into a princess, yet here we are."  
  
"Well, you just stick with me and we'll have no problem there. I make it my business to know what royalty does."  
  
Civil talk didn't seem to last long between the two of them, for E soon enough was once again curiously eyeing Mal with an air of suspicion.  
  
"...And what exactly is in it for you again?" she asked.  
  
Mal scowled.  
  
"I told you, nothing's in it for me or my gang."  
  
"So you're really spending valuable time and money to take a complete stranger across the country, with  _no_ interest whatsoever in the reward money that could come out of it?" E slyly questioned.  
  
"You heard me, we're doing this out of the goodness of our hearts. A rare trait in Auradon, sure, but not non-existent."  
  
"Doesn't seem likely," E shook her head.   
  
"'Doesn't seem likely'? You don't even know me! You have no clue what my intentions are!" Mal snapped.  
  
"You're right, but I can guess they aren't anything good!"  
  
"From what? From what some random strangers say about me on the streets? And what do you care, anyway?? So long as you get a chance at uncovering your memories you shouldn't care  _how_  you go about it!"  
  
Jay, with a grunt, cracked open his tired eyes.  
  
"Ladies, if you're gonna get loud, how about taking the girl talk outside?" he bitterly grumbled.  
  
"Gladly," E rose to her feet rather daintily, as if showing off, and then stormed out of the cabin, yanking the door open and taking off down the corridor.  
  
"Gladly," Mal echoed, storming out too, but in the complete opposite direction from E.  
  
Jay shook his head with a heavy sigh, tugged his beanie over his eyes, and fell back into sleep.

* * *

 

Diablo may have been exaggerating as he checked his wings over for frost or icicles on his return trip to The Isle, but he just couldn't help it. Flying with the scepter in his talons slowed him tremendously, and the chilling journey across the sea was far more vicious the second time around. Swooping in through the balcony once more, Maleficent snatched the scepter right out of his grasp without so much as a passing glance at him, eyes lighting up with fire and passion.

"My scepter..." she whispered. "My center of power..."  
  
Her laughter was quiet, awed, before building and rising when the crystal within its tip began to glow an emerald green.  
  
"Just look at it, Diablo!"  
  
"Yes, mistress. I've seen it," the bird panted.  
  
Maleficent reveled at the sight of it come to life, especially on the island where she never once thought she'd see magic.  
  
"That little  _princess_  has had it good for far too long," she sneered, the light of the scepter reflecting in her fiendishly sparkling eyes. "Today marks the beginning of the end, the  _true_ end of those pesky royals!"  
  
She struck the end of her scepter down onto the floor, and a boom like thunder sounded. Diablo had to squint his eyes and look away from the fierce light that doubled in intensity and radiated out from the scepter's crystal, and even though he didn't see, he heard the telltale sounds of magic, the tinkles and crackles of things being cast forth from the staff and brought to life around them. When the light dimmed, he knew the magic had stopped, and he took a look around the room.  
  
There was Maleficent, cackling gleefully, for there they were. The strangest assortment of creatures, some avian, some reptilian, some fairly pig-like. Armed with sword and shield and vacant expressions.  
  
"These guys again. Wonderful," Diablo rolled his eyes.  
  
"Minions!" Maleficent called all her old goons to attention.  
  
Each head swiveled towards her, still vacantly staring, not the brightest of the bunch. They were scores and scores short of the minion army she once commanded, but they would do. Diablo knew this was no full-scale invasion she was planning—she only needed a few to kill one young girl.  
  
"With the return of my scepter, nothing can stop me now! I may have failed once, but I won't fail again. Now, my curse will be fulfilled, and this rotten kingdom's last hope, its last shining light...will die!"  
  
The minions cheered, throwing their hands up in the air and bouncing on stubby little legs. Diablo could do without the brainless goons, but watching his master's old spark come back, that was something his beady eyes could stand to see. A thunderclap boomed overhead with the power of the scepter, and the sudden flash of lightning outside the castle heralded another.  
  
_"Here alone on The Isle I was tossing and turning,"_ Maleficent sang. _"And the nightmare I had was as bad as can be."  
_  
Slowly at first, then more and more, the minions started to do what they did best—dance.  
  
_"It scared me out of my wits, a mind falling to bits, then I opened my eyes and the nightmare was me!"_  
  
In a circle they gathered around Maleficent, tapping their feet and bounding around with their weapons.  
  
_"I was once the most powerful one in the kingdom!"_  
  
_"Ooh ah ooh,"_ the minions chorused.  
  
_"When the royals betrayed me they made a mistake!"  
  
"Ooh ah ooh!"_  
  
Maleficent broke through the creatures to rush to a once ornate and now decrepit bureau, snatching a cracked mirror off the tabletop and watching the grown-up face of the princess magically come to life within the glass.  
  
_"My curse made each of them pay, but one little girl got away. Little Evie beware, your doom is awake!"_  
  
_"In the dark of the night, evil will find her!"_  
  
The minions sang for Maleficent, who reveled in the accompaniment.  
  
_"In the dark of the night, just before dawn!"_  
  
Diablo shook his head and ruffled his feathers, unknowingly sharing his castlemate Mal's befuddlement at the way Auradon's inhabitants seemed to always have a song ready.  
_  
"Revenge will be sweet when the curse is complete,"_  Maleficent threw her arms wide with a trademark flourish.  
  
_"In the dark of the night..."_  
  
_"She'll be gone!!"_  the wicked sneer alight on the sorcereress' face was the stuff of legend.  
  
In all the musical revelry a lone minion tripped over his own feet and crashed into the chair Diablo rested on, sending him aloft with an angered squawk before he bitterly settled back down.  
_  
"I can feel that my powers are slowly returning,"_ Maleficent gripped her scepter tight. _"Grab my cloak and we'll soon be out of this hell!"_  
  
She looked into the magic mirror once more, watching the princess' reflection instead of her own.  
_  
"As the pieces fall into place, I'll see her CRAWL into place! See you later Evie, Your Grace...farewell."  
_  
The minions, and Diablo too, followed obediently as she left the grand bedroom behind and descended the stairs.  
_  
"In the dark of the night, terror will strike her."_  
  
_"Terror's the least I can do!"_  Maleficent corrected.  
_  
"In the dark of the night, evil will brew."  
_  
Diablo took his long-forgotten place on Maleficent's shoulder, and she stroked his feathers just like old times.  
_  
"Soon she will feel that her nightmares are real,"_  she sang to the raven, whose beak contorted in a vicious grin.  
_  
"In the dark of the night..."  
_  
_"She'll be through!!"_  Maleficent cackled.  
  
The procession didn't stop as the mistress of evil took them down all the lower levels of her castle, not even the good old center of the place where she'd plotted the villains' invasion so long ago.  
_  
"In the dark of the night, evil will find her."_  
  
Diablo couldn't help it, he got caught up in the merriment.  
  
_"Find her,"_ he echoed, singing along. Maleficent shot him an impressed and amused glance.  
_  
"In the dark of the night, terror comes through."  
_  
_"Doom her,"_ the bird went on, basking in the silent praise.  
  
_"My dear, here's a sign it's the end of the line,"_ Maleficent led the way through the very last floor of the castle, the abandoned shop where she once tried to scrape together a living on The Isle before deciding to take over the kingdom that had wronged her so.  
  
_"In the dark of the night..."  
  
"In the dark of the night..."  
_  
Maleficent and her posse burst through the castle doors and out into the winter storm mystically brewing beyond the walls, thunder and lightning continuing to fight overhead as the winds kicked up snow in driving lashes. With several waves of her scepter she cast a spell over the creatures behind her, enveloping them in a sickly green mist that transformed them all into fiendish, almost-skeletal ravens.  
_  
"Come my minions, fly for your master! Let your evil shine!"_  
  
Diablo considered it a notable improvement as he watched them all take flight, imbued with magic and might that made the storm nothing against their ghoulishly torn and tattered wings. Maleficent pointed her scepter in the direction of the mainland, invisible through the blinding snow but still looming in the distance nonetheless.  
_  
"Find her now, yes, go ever faster!"  
_  
_"In the dark of the night, in the dark of the night, in the dark of the night..."  
_  
Mistress and familiar tilted their heads back and watched as the minions spiraled up and up, beating a path through the air with one single, solitary mission. The crystal within the scepter glowed again with green fire, Maleficent curling her fingers tightly around the staff with the fierce determination to never let it go.  
  
_"She'll be MINE!!!"_

* * *

 

Carlos easily held back and let Dude lead the way up and down the length of the train, the two passing from car to car. He didn't know how long they'd been out walking, but he didn't really care, it passed the time. Every now and then he'd stop to scoop up Dude, giving him a look out the windows and the winter landscape zooming by. He was sort of E's dog and also not E's dog at the same time, but as long as E didn't mind, Carlos liked to keep him close.

The other passengers that drifted past them along the aisle from time to time seemed to pay them no heed, which he really didn't even notice for a while until one so rudely bumped into him without so much as a grunt of apology—like Mal and Jay, Carlos was used to being invisible to the denizens of the kingdom. Heck, as thieves and scammers, their livelihoods depended on it. A fact which was startlingly brought back to mind halfway down the train when Carlos caught sight of two passengers unwittingly following his example and leaving their cabin to stretch out their legs.   
  
Which really wouldn't have been much of a problem, except that those two passengers just so happened to be Auradon guards.  
  
With wide eyes and an urgent "psst!" to get Dude's attention, Carlos spun on his heels and walked as fast as he could without drawing attention. Dude kept up, but even in his haste Carlos moved rather stiffly, like he was frozen from the ankles up. When he reached the gang's cabin he picked up the dog and all but dove inside, seeing Jay out cold, Mal next to him with her sketchbook, and E gazing dreamily out the window until the sound of Carlos slamming the cabin door shut drew her attention away.  
  
"...What's with the face?" Mal raised an eyebrow, her only sign of interest before she cast her eyes down and continued drawing.  
  
Carlos was practically bracing himself against the door.  
  
"You, uh, you remember that time we got into some pretty big heat with the royal guard for swiping all those badges and trying to pawn them off because of the gold?" he started with a nervous smile.  
  
"They're practically out of business anyway, it's not like they needed them," Mal boredly said, erasing some lines here and there. "I don't see what the big deal was.  _I_ certainly wouldn't have wasted my time printing up all those Wanted posters."  
  
"Yeah, me neither. But, um, maybe you can ask  _them_ what the big deal was."  
  
Now Mal got the hint, glancing up in time to see Carlos jerking his head in the direction of the door and the corridors outside.  
  
"What was that about Wanted posters?" E asked.  
  
"Nothing," Mal quickly said, shoving the sketchbook into the bag at her feet and standing up.  
  
She started to urgently take their luggage down from overhead, and Carlos moved to help her, before stopping to first shake Jay awake.  
  
"Jay. Hey, Jay!" he whispered harshly, jarring him by the shoulder.  
  
"Wha—??" Jay snored, eyes squeezed shut and blindly trying to shove Carlos away.  
  
"Wake up Jay, we gotta go," the boy pressed.  
  
E took another quick look out the window, reminding herself that they were indeed on a moving train.  
  
"And where exactly would we be going?" she questioned skeptically.  
  
With Mal's help Carlos brought a sleepy and half-conscious Jay to his feet.  
  
"Anywhere but here," Mal told her.  
  
E rolled her eyes and helped with the bags, really not surprised that something had gone wrong.  
  
They abandoned their cabin and scrambled up the aisles, leaving the passenger cars behind entirely as they moved to the head of the train.  
  
"We're on the run now?" E said in somewhat annoyed disbelief as they took shelter in the baggage car.  
  
"Not on the run, just...laying low," Mal corrected, dropping the bags. "Look, at least it's much roomier in here. We're not all cramped in one cabin. With a  _dog_ , I might add."  
  
Dude started to bark as Carlos moved in front of him with a mortally offended gasp at the fact that Mal had just said that, but no one noticed how frantic and urgent his bark was, or how he hunkered down low to the floor and appeared to growl at something that just didn't seem to be there.  
  
"'Laying low'," E repeated, exasperated. "From royal guards on a non-stop train. Honestly, how can one girl be this much trouble?"  
  
"I could ask you the same thing!"  
  
The girls' bickering was interrupted by a fierce jolt from out of nowhere, viciously rocking the car and knocking each and every one of them off their feet. Bags and suitcases went flying, it was a wonder and a miracle none of them got whacked in the head.  
  
"I'm awake," Jay said, readjusting his beanie and sitting up.  
  
Mal pointed an accusing finger at E as they both rolled onto their hands and knees.  
  
"Before you think of a way to blame me for this, no, it was not my fault," she scowled.  
  
"Um..." Carlos pointed a finger too as he shakily got to his feet, only he pointed his at the door they'd just entered the baggage car through and the corridor behind it.  
  
Except there was no more door. And no more corridor. No more rest of the train, really, the entire back half had been wrenched free of the coupling, slowing to a stop on the tracks while the lucky crew continued to speed along still connected to the engine.  
  
"Again, E, not my fault!" Mal repeated, taking in the severity of the situation.  
  
The harsh winter air blew right in, and Dude continued to bark and yelp crazily, standing steadfast at the door on the opposite end of the car that led to the rest of what little train they still had left. Carlos ran to the dog, leaping over fallen luggage, and tugged the door open to see what had Dude's attention. His heart sank when he did.  
  
"Hey Mal?" he called over his shoulder, trying to make himself heard over the roar of the train.  
  
"What??" Mal called back, helping E to her feet.  
  
"Let's hope this isn't your fault either!" Carlos stepped aside so the others could see just how  _massively_  on fire the head of the train was.  
  
Jay and E looked to Mal.  
  
"...Nope, not my fault," she insisted.  
  
"The boilers of these old trains are filled with all kinds of fumes, if the flames reach it, we're done for!" Jay yelled.  
  
"...Right. You're right, we have to get out of here," Mal grabbed a suitcase and E's hand, hurriedly toting both along to the other end of the car.  
  
"We're going eighty miles an hour!" E protested, understanding Mal's intentions. "No way are we jumping from this train!"  
  
"Do you have a better idea?" Mal demanded.  
  
"Yes, unhook the baggage car from the engine!"   
  
Not expecting that response, a bewildered Mal looked to the boys.  
  
"...No one ever said royalty couldn't be smart," Carlos shrugged.  
  
"...Fine. We unhook the car," Mal said.  
  
What none of them but Dude were aware of was the commotion going on outside the walls of the car, namely, Maleficent's flying minions zipping around, overhearing the entire conversation and using their master's dark magic to melt the train's steel links and solder the baggage car to the engine. Jay leapt through the door and onto the coupling, dangerously close to the burning section of the train.  
  
"What the...?  ...It's fused together!" he shouted to the others.  
  
Mal was next, bravely jumping down beside him to have a look for herself.  
  
"...We'll never be able to break this apart," she said with wide, panicked eyes.  
  
"Hang on, there's got to be  _something_  in here!" Carlos started going through suitcases and bags, scrounging through the belongings of the other passengers. "E, help me look!"  
  
She did so, but the both of them fruitlessly searched through only collections of clothes and books, none of it remotely useful in wrenching metal free from metal. Jay looked over his shoulder, worriedly eyeing the flames creeping closer and closer. Mal did the same, but with a more calculating glint in her eyes.  
  
"...If I can get to the controls, I can hit the brakes and slow us down enough to jump," she said.  
  
E was the first one to shoot her down.  
  
"Mal, no! That's entirely too dangerous!"  
  
"Well we can't just sit here and get blown sky high!"  
  
Carlos peeked his head out the wrecked and ruined end of the train to eye the landscape, and E saw him.  
  
"Carlos, we're still going way too fast to jump from this train," she denied.  
  
"But it looks like we're riding along a huge bank of snow, it should be like landing on a pillow."  
  
Jay and Mal clambered back into the baggage car.  
  
"No, E is right, we should try to slow down somehow before we jump," Mal said.  
  
E was frantically looking all around the car, mind racing as she tried to come up with something,  _anything_. And then the lightbulb went off above her head. Literally.  
  
"...You guys!"   
  
She pointed up, to the two hanging chain lamps dangling from above and lighting the car.   
  
"If we get those chains tangled up in the wheels, they'll lock up long enough to slow us down!" she explained.  
  
Carlos shook his head.  
  
"No way are they sturdy enough, they'll snap like toothpicks," he disagreed.  
  
"We have to try," Mal quickly said. "Jay, give him a boost."  
  
Jay wasted no time in hoisting Carlos up so he could give one of the lamps several hard yanks, breaking it free from the ceiling in a shower of wood and splinters. To the front of the car they all ran, Carlos leaning out and trying to lower the lamp, chain and all, just so into the path of the wheels.  
  
"This isn't going to work," he anxiously said.  
  
"Just drop it, Carlos!" Mal told him, looking up and seeing the fire spreading closer still.  
  
So Carlos did, covering his eyes with his hands after he let E's crazy idea drop like he just couldn't bear to watch the failure. With a terrible screech and a shriek the long chain tangled within the wheel spokes and the pistons, messing with the car for a split second and throwing them all backwards. As evidence by the crumpled heap the four and Dude had landed in, the pistons were actually hampered and halted for a moment before the telltale "clink" of the chain snapping sounded.  
  
"That's as good as we're going to get," Mal was the first one to her feet, eyes scanning the floor and trying to sort out which bags were theirs among the mess.   
  
"We've barely slowed down any," E said.  
  
Mal handed a bag to Jay, and one to Carlos.  
  
"No, but we don't have the time to hang around and try for round two. We'll just have to take our chances," Mal also handed a bag to E, taking one last glance at the floor to see if she'd rounded them all up.  
  
The others followed her to the open end of the train, Carlos clutching Dude and his designated suitcase tight.  
  
"Just like landing on a pillow?" Mal repeated his words, peering out into the snow.  
  
"Let's hope," Carlos gulped.  
  
The four stood side by side as the outside world zipped past, not at all an inviting sight at this speed. E wrapped an arm around Mal's, Jay wrapped his around E's and Carlos'. All of them linked arm-in-arm in a chain of their own, with Mal taking a deep breath.  
  
"One...two...three!!"  
  
And then they leapt, life itself seeming to flash before their very eyes as they flew through the air and careened into the snowbank. Soft, yes. Like a pillow, yes. Cold,  _yes_. Five heads popped out like daisies, one blue, one purple, one white, one sporting a red beanie, one scruffy and orange. They blinked snow from their eyes just in time to see the remainder of the train race down the railway a fair distance before going up in an explosion of red and orange.  
  
"Duck!" Jay yelled.  
  
And five heads disappeared back into the snow to dodge a rain of embers and debris.  
  
When they dug themselves out and checked themselves over, they were a shivering mess, but all safe and in one piece. Carlos unzipped his jacket to tuck a shaking Dude inside, jumping partly to warm himself, partly to jar the snow loose from his collar. E, with her glamorous fingerless gloves, shoved her hands deep within her pockets, finding little relief as they too were lined with snow.  
  
"...We're cold, but we're alive," Mal said through chattering teeth.  
  
"I say we head down the t-tracks and w-warm up by the wreckage," Carlos only half joked.  
  
"...Well, that was an experience," E grimly noted, fixed on the flames in the distance.  
  
"Tell me about it," Mal muttered. "Remind me never to get on a train again."

* * *

 

Through the will of a magic mirror, Maleficent watched four teens and a dog stand safe and sound among the snow.

"Fools! Idiots! Imbeciles!!" her voice echoed throughout her empty castle. "How could they let her escape?!"  
  
"Set the train on fire, fuse the cars together...child's play. Which explains why the minions had such trouble with it," Diablo said airily.   
  
Maleficent snarled comically, clenching the mirror so tight in her hand that she might shatter the splintered glass even more.  
  
"Should I do the job for you, mistress?" the raven offered. "Claw her pretty face? Peck out an eye?"  
  
"...No," the gears started churning in Maleficent's mind, signaled by the evil smile painting her face. "I'm beginning to think a quick and easy death is too good for our darling Evie, much too good indeed."  
  
"You have something else in mind?" Diablo questioned.  
  
"Oh, do I," Maleficent snorted. "Something so much more than that, something terribly nasty. Something very, very... _cruel_." 


	5. Chapter 5

"I know I'm not the pampered princess we're all pretending that I am, so I'm really not one to complain...but are we seriously going to  _walk_  the  _entire_ way to Villeneuve?"

E's feet, in her age-worn boots that lost the meaning of the word "support" about four years ago, fiercely ached.

The luggage-bound trek from the wreckage of their train had been bad enough, with evening falling and E worrying that they'd be trudging through snow and over rough ground all through the night, but luck brought them to one of the smaller towns outside the borders of Cinderellasburg, where the chronic pickpocketing and purse snatching of her acquaintances handily set them up to rent a hotel room overnight.

"Villeneuve is across the sea, your highness. We have to take a ship," Mal snapped, admittedly cold and cranky herself.

"Ah, so we're walking the entire way to the  _coast,"_ E didn't quite like that plan any better.

"And quit thinking you're not the princess," Mal changed the subject, looking over her shoulder as she led the way through the snow. "There's every chance you could be. The Grand Duchess Potts won't even give you a passing glance if you don't start believing and acting like you're the missing princess, and then where will you be? Stuck in Villeneuve with no more clues to your past or your family."

"Mal, look at me!" E stopped, dropping her suitcase to the ground and throwing her arms wide. "Nothing about me says 'princess', lost or otherwise!"

Her boots, falling apart. Her fingerless gloves, her scratchy trenchcoat that had descended into the beginning stages of being moth-eaten at the orphanage.

"...So you don't  _look_ like a princess," Carlos came up behind her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "That's not what matters. What matters is that you  _feel_ like a princess. That's what shows."

"I don't feel like one either, Carlos," E glumly muttered, shrugging out from under his hand.

"Well, you don't have to convince yourself," Jay tried to helpfully add. "All you have to do is convince your way to the Grand Duchess."

"That's right," Carlos nodded. "That poor old woman has spent years searching for her granddaughter, and if you're really Princess Evie, even if you don't know it, don't you owe it to your grandmother to at least try and act like it?"

"How else will she ever know if she's found her lost granddaughter?" Jay shrugged, going along with Carlos.

This was the scheme, the scheme to end all schemes; crafting the most perfect princess to stroll out in front of the Grand Duchess and then collecting their reward money to book it out of Villeneuve and away from Auradon forever before E did something to blow her cover. And without the girl, their whole con would be for nothing. Without the girl feeling confident enough to go through with it, they had nothing.

"Listen, it's simple," Jay went on. "All we have to do is get to Villeneuve, talk to Jane, and then meet with the Grand Duchess."

"Jane? Who's Jane?" E asked.

Carlos stooped over to pick up Dude and nestle him in the crook of an arm.

"A friend of mine from when I was little," he explained. "She managed to leave Cinderellasburg and find a much better life working as the Grand Duchess' advisor and assistant."

"Why do we have to talk to her?" E asked again, looking to Mal for some reason.

Mal was admittedly dreading that question. She sidled close to E, making sneaking tracks in the snow.

"Well, you see, with such a  _ridiculously_  extravagant cash reward, girls have come from far and wide pretending to be the lost princess," she said.

"Imagine that," E narrowed her eyes at the con, fully imagining that she would be one to stoop so low.

Mal ignored the silent jab.

"So Jane sort of screens all the girls now. If they don't convince her that they could be the real deal, they don't see Grand Duchess Potts," she finished.

E's eyes went wide as she backed away from Mal.

_"What??_  No one said there'd be a  _test!"_ she exclaimed. "I thought I was going to just see the Grand Duchess, explain about my past, show her the necklace, and find out if I had a home with her or not. You guys didn't tell me I had to prove I'm Evie beforehand!"

"There's no doubt that you're Evie, your past fits too perfectly to just be a coincidence," Mal insisted, trying like the boys to draw E back on track. "The Grand Duchess will know that, it's just a matter of learning all the princess stuff to get past Jane first."

"That's the thing Mal, I don't  _know_ any of the princess stuff!" E argued in exasperation.

Jay came front and center, grinning slyly.

"And that's where you lucked out, meeting a handful of schemers like us," he said.

The others nodded.

"We're dreamers, E," Mal put an arm around her shoulder. "Dreamt of the day we'd have a chance to con some royalty and come out of it with all the riches and jewels they keep stashed away to themselves."

"Like a chance to sneak into a ball, or impersonate lords and ladies," Carlos chuckled.

"...You all are terrible," E disapproved with a frown.

"No, we're practical," Jay corrected. "A couple of street thieves like us could never get close to royalty without knowing what we were doing, so we learned."

"Stole all the books on etiquette, read all the history of Auradon," Carlos said.

"We know the finer ins and outs of royalty, curtsies and all," Mal added. "We're saying we can teach you to be a princess, E."

"Jane will be blown away, you'll meet your real grandmother, and finally have your home," Carlos kindly assured her.

Dude barked and hopped from Carlos’ hold, as if to chorus his own agreement.

"...I don't know, you guys."

E stepped out from under Mal's arm and stormed away from the others, letting her feet sink into the snow and wrapping her arms around herself. Maybe leaving Cinderellasburg was a mistake. Maybe turning the wrong way on that stupid fork in the road was the real mistake, and maybe she should've just spent the rest of her life in that bakery, where at least a meal and a place to sleep were sure things. Mal was in front of her soon enough, tucking a hand under E's chin and lifting her lost gaze from the ground.

"...E, what do you have to lose?" Mal asked, surprisingly soft. "You get past Jane, you meet the Grand Duchess, and if it turns out you're not the princess? Then fine, honest mistake, who's going to blame you with a missing past like yours? So you just have some more steps to walk to find your family, that's fine. But no one's going to say you didn't try."

The exact words E had told herself as she made that first step towards Cinderellasburg at the pivotal and far too literal fork in the road. No one was going to say she didn't try.

"...Okay," she sighed, turning back to the others and mustering a smile. "Teach me how to be a princess."

The others smiled back at her, devious scheme back in action.

"E, you'll be a princess by the time we hit the coast," Carlos promised.

And then, once more, they were on their way.

_"Your childhood was blissful and carefree,"_  Jay sang.

_"Blissful and carefree..."_  E wistfully repeated, trying to imagine it.  _"Could it be?"_

Carlos and Dude fell into step beside her as they walked.

_"Yeah, that's right. You rode horseback when you were only three."_

_"Horseback riding? Me?"_  E laughed at him.

_"And the horse, he was white."_

Jay thought to throw in the tiny details, the things that would sell E's story to Jane and Grand Duchess Potts.

_"You made faces, and terrorized the cook,"_  Carlos sang.

_"Threw him in the brook!"_ Jay gave E a little nudge with his elbow, impressed.

E couldn't believe it.

_"I was wild?"_

_"Wrote the book,"_  Mal told her.

_"But you'd behave when the king would give that look,"_  Carlos impersonated said look.

The king. E wanted so badly to be able to perfectly picture it. Could she really have been daughter to a king? Granddaughter to a Grand Duchess?

_"Imagine how it was, your long-forgotten past,"_  Jay gestured to the sky above them like E could see her life and history painted there among the clouds.

Mal, Carlos, and Jay gathered around E, singing together for her.

_"There's lots and lots to teach you and the time is going fast!"_

E nodded, taking a deep breath.

_"All right...I'm ready,"_  she firmly told herself and the others.

First, she had to carry herself like a royal.

_"So, shoulders back and stand up tall,"_  Mal straightened E out with a sudden yank.

_"And do not walk, but try to float,"_  Carlos instructed, showing off the walk in front of her, head held high.

_"...I feel a little silly,"_ E shyly said.  _"Am I floating?"_

_"Like a little boat. You give a bow..."_ Jay demonstrated, hand over his waist and dipping low.

E did the same.

_"What happens now?"_

_"Your hand receives a kiss,"_  Carlos side-eyed Mal, who grudgingly obliged, bowing and quickly kissing E's hand to demonstrate the royal ways before all three of the cons' voices came together again.

_"Most of all remember this!"_

_"If we can learn to do it, you can learn to do it,"_  Carlos said surely.

_"Something in you knows it,"_ Mal tapped a finger to E's heart.

_"There's nothing to it!"_ Jay grinned.

Carlos led the way with his perfectly poised royal walk.

_"Follow in our footsteps, shoe by shoe,"_  he called over his shoulder.

Jay and Mal followed behind him, and E followed in turn, the four of them and Dude across the snowy landscape.

_"You can learn to do it too!"_  the thieves sang.

E and her tired feet got their wish as the journey to the coast carried on. Jay, with a threatening flex of muscles and a well-clenched fist, flagged down a man's horse-drawn carriage and hitched everyone a ride. As they sat and bounced among bales of hay, the lessons continued.

_"Now, elbows in, and sit up straight,"_ Mal again fixed E's posture with a jerk of her shoulders.  _"And never slurp the jasmine tea."_

Jay snatched away the empty tin can in E's hands, where they had her pretending she was sitting in on brunch with dukes and duchesses.

_"I never cared for jasmine tea,"_  E said.

Jay chuckled, tossing the can over a shoulder.

_"She said that just like royalty."_

Carlos gestured to the bales of hay around them, pretending they were long, ornate tables piled high with food.

_"The evening feast..."_

_"Last but not least,"_  Mal chimed in.

_"Dessert and then goodnight?"_ E hopefully guessed.

Three pairs of scheming eyes narrowed at her.

_"Not until you get this right!"_

The hitchhikers changed gears when their ride took them past some stables and a field that wasn't quite so buried in snow. All at once, Mal, Carlos, and Jay decided to really sell their story by teaching E how to ride a horse. After all, the princess _had_  been riding since she was three. She was frightened and unsure as Jay boosted her up into the saddle, until he promised that he'd be right there next to her.

_"If we can learn to do it—"_  Mal came galloping by atop a black horse.

_"—You can learn to do it,"_ Carlos confidently rode by right behind her.

Jay guided E's horse by the reins, slow and steady as she got used to riding.

_"Pull yourself together, and you'll pull through it,"_  he encouraged her.

Mal started showing off, circling around and around, leaping her horse over the hurdles scattered in the field.

_"Tell yourself it's easy!"_  she called out on one of her fly-bys.

_"And it's true!"_ Jay said.

The three of them kept watchful eyes on her as she practiced, wearing identical grins when she finally got the horse trotting around the field all on her own.

_"You can learn to do it too!"_

The winter got warmer the further they got from Cinderellasburg, as if a chillingly bitter dark cloud hovered around the city and the city alone. By the time E and the others once more hitched a ride in the back of a truck, they didn't even need their heavy jackets. Carlos' sneaky fingers had swiped a book from a rotting storefront shelf in one of the small Auradon towns they passed through after the stables, and he opened it up as they rode along.

_"Next, you have to memorize the names of the royalty. So, first we have Prince Charming—"_

_"Into feet,"_  Mal interrupted.

_"Kind of alarming,"_ Jay grumbled.

Mal leaned in close to Carlos, looking over his shoulder and checking out the book for herself.

_"And then there's dear Old Cindy,"_  she flipped a page and pointed.

_"Cleaned the chimneys,"_  Carlos explained.

_"Keeping up, E?"_

_"No..."_  she fretfully told Mal.

Jay reached across both Mal and Carlos, flipping a few pages in the book too.

_"The princess Kida?"_  he prodded.

E frowned.

_"She was..."_

_"Old,"_ Mal curtly answered for her.

Their rapid-fire quiz circled back to Carlos.

_"Advisor Sneezy."_

_"Had a..."_  E trailed off.

_"Cold,"_ Jay told her.

Carlos turned the book out to E, so she could see the pictures and put a face to a name.

_"And Kuzco?"_

Jay snapped his fingers, knowing that one too.

_"Wore a golden hat."_

_"You know, he's really not all that,"_  Mal shrugged.

_"And I recall an evil cat!"_ E said triumphantly, as if she'd finally gotten a royal right.

Carlos wore a puzzled frown, tilting his head to mutter in Mal's ear.

_"...Yeah, I don't think we told her that."_

The sun was just starting to lower itself in the sky when the traveling gang came to a hilltop and found the coast and the harbor within sight. What _Jay_  found within sight were four irresponsibly unattended bikes, one fitted ever so conveniently with a Dude-sized basket and another with a luggage rack, and the mischievous Jay didn't even wait for E to disapprove before he hopped a bike and challenged the others to a race to the harbor.

_"If you can learn to do it, I can learn to do it,"_  E wore a thrilled smile as she coasted downhill alongside Mal, poise perfect and head held regally high.

_"Don't know how you knew it,"_  Jay laughed over his shoulder, leading the way.

_"I simply knew it! Suddenly I feel like someone new!"_ E giggled.

_"E, you are a dream come true!"_ Mal and her gang chorused.

More like a scheme come true, as Mal eyed the ship that would take them out of Auradon, to Villeneuve, and to heaps and heaps of royal reward money.

It was strange; as their journey took E through all the 'finer ins and outs of royalty', she found that she was a fast study, a quick learner. She rode that horse across the field like she had been riding all her life, the etiquette tips and tricks came to her and stuck with her like second nature, and in spite of a rough start, she could take Mal's crew back through the limbs of the royal family trees like she'd met each and every famous face in that book of Carlos'.

_"If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it,"_ she proudly said, taking her bag from Jay.

_"Pull yourself together, and you'll pull through it,"_  Carlos smiled.

Mal looped an arm through E's.

_"Tell yourself it's easy—"_

_"—And it's true,"_  Jay took E's other arm.

_"You can learn to do it,"_  all four of them sang together as they started down the dock.

_"Nothing to it!"_  E laughed.

_"You can learn to do it too!"_

The ship out of Auradon loomed over them at the edge of the harbor, a formidable and imposing sight, but it wasn't the one E found herself focused on. She slipped away from Jay and Mal, toting her suitcase along as she went to stand alone on the dock.

And look out at the ocean.

Glittering blue with splashes of pink as the sun set lower in the sky, rooting E in place in spite of the chilly winter winds breezing along its waves.

"...You've never seen the sea before?" Mal came up beside her.

E shook her head, not wanting to speak and break the spell the water had over her.

"But what about Cinderellasburg?" Mal went on. "What about the bay at the edge of the city, with the Isle of the Lost out across the water?"

E shook her head a second time.

"I spent my entire life in an orphanage, Mal," she quietly said. "And the few times we ever went into the city, it wasn't to sightsee."

Mal was quiet for a moment, suddenly trying to wrap her head around it.

"...So leaving Cinderellasburg, crossing the countryside, traveling all the way down to the coast—"

"Has just been one big, amazing adventure for me," E finally tore herself away from the ocean to look at Mal, smiling brightly.

So very brightly, with sun and sea sparkling in her earthen eyes. It caught Mal like a punch in the chest.

"So I guess...even if I don't find my home and my family in Villeneuve, I'll still always have this journey to remember. And you guys to thank," E softly and sweetly said.

Mal suddenly didn't know what to say, every single word she knew escaping her when she looked into E's hopeful and grateful eyes.

"Hey! All aboard!" Jay called out to the girls, he and Carlos and Dude starting up the gangway.

"...Come on, E," Mal tentatively took her by the hand. "Villeneuve is waiting."

Their cabin was far from first class, hardly fit for a princess. Two bunk beds and not much else in a cramped space so below deck that they'd definitely be the first ones to know if the ship was sinking. Mal shrugged it off. Jay shrugged it off. Carlos shrugged it off. They were thieves and con artists, first class (and second class, for that matter) wasn't exactly in their price range.

The boys didn't linger after the ship set sail, staying only long enough to toss their bags onto their beds before taking Dude and heading up to the deck. E, although more than eager to follow and gaze back out across the ocean, wanted a moment to kick back and rest her weary feet on one of the bottom bunks.

"...I got you something," Mal said, digging in her suitcase that she'd set on the opposite bottom bunk.

"You what?" E rolled over on her bed, resting her head in her hand as curious eyes looked over.

"Well, you said you didn't feel like a princess, so..."

E gasped when Mal pulled out a pleated day dress, deep blue and dazzling. She sat up, eyes wide, marveling as Mal held it out for her to see.

"Mal, you...wait, you didn't steal this, did you?"

Mal rolled her eyes.

"I  _bought_ it," she insisted. "In that same middle-of-nowhere town where Carlos got his book on royalty."

"Where Carlos  _stole_  his book on royalty."

"Look, do you want it or not?" Mal scowled.

"Oh Mal, of course I do," E kindly said, standing up and taking the dress from Mal. "Thank you."

"I guess blue is just your color," Mal noted, eyes very obviously tracing the waves of E's hair.

"Always has been," the other girl nodded proudly. "That's why I had Dizzy dye it for me. Sort of like how purple must be your color."

Mal chuckled to herself, as if laughing over a secret only she knew. Which, as it turned out, was quite literally the case.

"I'm actually a blonde," she said easily, as if it wasn't the biggest bomb-drop in the world.

"...No  _way,"_ E gasped.

Mal lifted a strand of purple between her fingers.

"This is magic. I was caught right in the middle of the invasion all those years ago when the kingdom fell. All I remember is being struck unconscious by one of the villains' blasts of magic, and when I came to, my hair had turned purple. And there isn't a hair dye in the world that's been able to get rid of it. Not that I want to, but, you know. Stubborn magic hair and all that."

"Wow..." E murmured, equally fascinated by both Mal's hair and the fact that she was a survivor of the villains' attack. "Dizzy would love to get her hands on you."

"And what? Run experiments?" Mal laughed.

"I wish I could tell you no," E laughed too.

"Gonna go back someday and tell her all about your adventures?"

"No, I'm going to bring her to  _me_  and tell her all about my adventures. I may not have a home of my own, and maybe I never will at all...but Dizzy will always have one with me."

Mal smiled. A warm, real, genuine smile.

"Well, E, at this point it doesn't matter what the Grand Duchess thinks of you...you've already got the heart of a princess. I'm going to go up on deck with the boys, okay?"

"...Okay," E nodded, cheeks suspiciously warm.

"See you in a little bit."

Warmer winter weather was a bit of a pipe dream on deck, with nothing stopping frigid winds from ghosting off the waves and whipping at everyone on board. But still, Mal and the boys were grateful for the freedom, of looking out across a black sea under a clear night sky and knowing that Cinderellasburg was far behind them. Mal followed the sounds of Dude's playful barks and his skittering paws when she made it topside, and it led her right to Jay and Carlos.

"We're actually going to pull this off," Jay grinned devilishly when Mal joined them.

"She knows her royal history, she knows her manners," Carlos listed the things out on his fingers. "She'll get past Jane for sure, but...will she really get past Grand Duchess Potts?"

"She doesn't have to," Mal firmly said.

Her fellow thieves frowned at her.

"What do you mean?" Carlos asked.

Mal reached a hand into her jacket pocket, showing off something she had snuck out of her suitcase when E wasn't paying attention. A small wooden box, with a peculiar clasp of a sword piercing a blood red heart. Jay whistled, recognizing ornate when he saw it.

"What is _that?"_ he questioned, eyes shining.

"Let's call it a royal trinket, and also insurance. If E passes, great. But if she fails..." Mal held the box out even further for the boys. "This alone will convince the Grand Duchess that E is the real deal."

"Where in Auradon did you get your hands on that??" Carlos wondered.

"...In a castle. A long long time ago," Mal stuck the box back in her pocket. "Look, either way, she gets a home, and we get our money. It's a win-win."

The boys nodded their agreement.

E came out to join them a little while later, Mal could tell from the way Carlos and Jay's heads swiveled. Mal followed their eyes, seeing E strolling over to them in her new dress, leaving her coat behind to properly show off.

"E, aren't you—" the word "cold" couldn’t even slip past Mal's lips as she saw E in the dress, because then she  _saw_ E in the dress.

She gave a little twirl, where the hem of her dress spiraled out like a blooming flower.

"...So? What do we think?" she asked.

Carlos' sweet and boyish grin was answer enough.

"Wow. A real live princess," he said.

Dude barked excitedly, scampering in circles before he made a running jump into E's arms, where she scratched his head and gave him a kiss before setting him back down.

"Well, if we've got a princess here, how about we teach her to dance?" Jay came over, bowing like a gentleman.

"There's no music," E giggled.

"A true princess doesn't need any," Mal teased, having a seat in a deck chair.

Jay tried to show her, his arm around her waist, her hand on his shoulder, stepping back and forth to his counts of "One, two, three". He hardly knew what he was doing, swaying clumsily and off his own tempo.

"Your feet are too big, twinkletoes," Carlos taunted. "Step aside."

He wedged his way in between Jay and E to take over, where he was admittedly lighter on his feet, but not better. With a long-suffering sigh, Mal watched him stumble around ungracefully with E under the glow of the deck lights.

"...Move it or lose it, Carlos," another sigh had Mal rising to her feet, intent on taking her turn at teaching.

E stepped away from Carlos with the strangest sense of deja vu passing over her at Mal's words, shaking it off and dismissing it when Mal took her hand and slipped an arm around her waist. When  _she_  led the count of "One, two, three", E immediately felt the difference. The two of them glided so easily along the deck, so smoothly that it was like they were two professionals. Mal flashed an impressed smile.

"You're a natural," she said, seeing how E didn't falter, moved surely and rhythmically in her steps.

Although E was admittedly surprised at herself, she was surprised even more at Mal.

"You are too. How—?"

"I liked to draw dancers when I was younger. I'd sneak into the abandoned theater in Cinderellasburg, back before it was ever abandoned, and sketch them while they practiced. I just picked up on it, spending all that time watching and studying their movements."

E closed her eyes and tried to envision it; Mal hiding in the wings with a pencil and her tattered sketchbook, eyes wide yet focused as she watched dancers spin and leap across a stage. She looked so soft in E's imagination, so gentle and delicate that she was a far different person from the scheming thief E knew now. There was truly so much more to her.

Carlos had Dude in his arms, distractedly scratching the orange scruff of his neck as he stood back and watched the girls dance with something flashing worriedly in his eyes.

"...Jay," he sharply whispered.

"I know," Jay whispered back.

They weren't so much watching Mal and E as they were just watching Mal, Mal with a strange, stunned sparkle in her eyes that wasn't at all like her. Nothing like their rough-and-tumble leader and everything like a seventeen year old girl absolutely enchanted by the young beauty she spun along with her on an improvised dance floor.

"...Jay, you don't think Mal—"

"I think she does," Jay quickly said, not even needing him to finish.

Carlos went pale.

"What?? No! We're in the middle of a con, she can't like E!" he harshly whispered. "Once we have the Grand Duchess' reward, we're gone! Mal will never see her again!"

"You try telling her that," Jay grumbled.

Mal wouldn't hear a thing, not as she spun E once to a song that played only in their minds and then settled the girl into her arms once more. They could've gone on like that forever, locked in one another's eyes, if Jay hadn't loudly and purposely cleared his throat and broken their spell. Mal and E slowed their steps like the nonexistent song was fading out, and although they came to a stop, Mal wouldn't look away. Neither would E. Until one lone ocean wind breezed over the deck and unpaused Mal's mind.

"...Here, E," Mal hurriedly shrugged out of her jacket, draping it around the girl's shoulders to keep her warm.

E smiled her thanks, only partially snapped out of her daze and still following each of Mal's movements with her eyes.

"Well," Jay clapped his hands together, again trying to shoo away the magic. "We'll hit Villeneuve by morning, and Dude's already turning into a pupsicle. Why don't we just go back to our cabin and chill?"

"A different kind of chill," Carlos helpfully clarified.

"Actually, I kind of want to stay up here and just...watch the sea go by," E wistfully said.

"Yeah, I'll stay up here with her," Mal told the boys.

And they were really rather afraid of that.

But there was nothing to be done, short of Jay picking Mal up and tossing her over his shoulder, so they retreated in defeat below deck, leaving Mal and E alone to lean along the ship's railing and stand under the stars.

"...To think that three days ago I was in a cramped and crumbling orphanage, the same old box I've been in all my life," E said, gazing up at the stars. "I would really love for Dizzy to see this."

"I kind of want to meet this girl myself," Mal chuckled.

"Oh Mal, she's an absolute joy," E gushed. "She's always been my ray of sunshine, not once in all the years I've known her has she ever had a frown on her face. And believe me, in that orphanage, that's quite the feat."

"Lucky kid."

E was beset with sudden curiosity, unsure if the questions in her head were ones she should ask, but it was Mal. Despite the brusque exterior and rough start in their partnership, something told her that Mal couldn't get terribly upset with her.

"...What about you, Mal? What about your family?" she carefully prodded.

"I don't have one," Mal said simply, unperturbed by the question.

"Then how come you never ended up at the orphanage?"

"Because I wouldn't let myself get put there. I didn't need to be looked after, I could take care of myself."

"Sounds lonely," E noted.

"Better than cramped and crumbling."

"In some ways, I suppose..."

E shivered, bundling Mal's coat tighter around her before realizing that her acquaintance now stood there in the cold. Mal saw her move to give it back, and shook her head.

"I'm fine," she assured her.

They fell into silence for a long while, just gazing overboard and watching the ship cut through waves of onyx. Only when Mal's coat stopped being able to keep out the cold did they head below, ready to rest, relax, and retire for the night.

And miles and miles away on the Isle of the Lost, through the will and broken glass of a magic mirror, a wicked sorceress tracked E's every move.

"...The princess is getting awfully chummy with young Mal, isn't she?" Diablo said, perched on Maleficent's shoulder.

"Disgusting," Maleficent sneered.

"What are you going to do?"

The villainess threw her head back in a maniacal laugh, an out of control snort.

"Mal's wide-eyed little bluebird is fascinated with the ocean? Alrighty then."

Fire flashed in her eyes as she watched the mirror, seeing E tucked under the covers of one of the bottom bunks, letting her head fall to the pillow and closing her eyes.

"...Let's have her take a look up close."

* * *

 

Four kids and a dog slept soundly in a pair of bunk beds, unaware that outside the steel trap of their ship, the waves were churning sinisterly through the might and magic of a powerful villainess.

E was aware of no ship, no waves, no bed, wandering free in the land of her dreams. It was sunny where she was, the kind of sun rarely ever seen in Cinderellasburg anymore...the impeccably trimmed lawn of a castle, with the grass a dreamily impossible green. Dizzy was there, sitting beside E as a veritable royal banquet was spread out before them on a lush picnic blanket. She and Dizzy had never seen so much food in either of their lives, and E rightfully worried they'd never finish it all. Sandwiches on warm, freshly baked bread, pizzas with colorful toppings, cakes and ice cream—things E had only heard of but never tasted, going hungry every other night in an overstuffed orphanage with too many mouths to feed.

No one could convince E it was only a dream as she and Dizzy ate their fill, warm in the sun's rays and at such peace with only chirping birds and the gust of a spring breeze in their ears.

Not the low growl of Dude, who sprung awake from where he was curled up on Carlos' chest as he sensed something in the cabin he couldn't yet see. Something like skeletal ravens, flapping wildly around E's head on shredded and rotting wings. He started to bark, leaping to his feet and yelping angrily at the creatures. Still in a dead sleep, E suddenly pushed back the covers and rolled out of bed, unknowingly guided by the monsters prying their way into her psyche. Dude knew that it was wrong, knew none of it was okay, and hopped down from Carlos' bottom bunk to bite at the cuff of E's pajama pants as she shuffled along the cabin floor, trying to tug her back.

But for all his heroics, E slipped through his grasp, closed eyes no hinderance as she searched out the door handle and wandered off into the corridor. The barking was urgent and more frantic with E out of his sight, but neither Carlos or Jay stirred, the two boys absolutely out cold.

"...Carlos, E, if one of you doesn't put a muzzle on that mutt..." Mal bitterly grumbled, disturbed from her rest and sitting up in the bunk she slept in above E.

Dude just turned his urgency on her, bounding over to the girls' bunk and barking up at Mal.

"Shh!" Mal hissed, so very cranky at the rude awakening. "E, will you grab that dumb dog and—"

She leaned over the edge of her bed, spying E's bunk below her and how it came up empty.

"...E?"

Then it clicked, and Mal was suddenly very wide awake indeed.

She didn't even stop to take the ladder, simply jumping down from the top bunk and being promptly thrown off her feet the second she hit the floor by the lurching of the ship as it rocked on enchanted waves. She paused just long enough to rub the back of her head with a wince, and then she was off, hurrying out the door and down the hallway after E.

But E was not worried about being chased, she and Dizzy had eaten more than their fill and had started on a walk into the thick forest steadfastly guarding the edge of the royal lawn. Dizzy's laugh as a butterfly drifted lazily in front of her face was something E felt like she hadn't heard in a very long time, a comforting sound. Something rumbled like thunder off in the distance, but it was such a beautiful day that it couldn't possibly be any such thing, and E thought nothing of it. The sunlight filtered down through the treetops, touching the forest floor in glowing patches here and there. Dizzy led the way, practically skipping along.

They had the forest all to themselves, and E happily trekked over mossy logs and stepped carefully around soft, beautiful flowers. She didn't realize her bare feet were actually stepping into chilling puddles as a mystical thunderstorm kicked up and the sea splashed up on deck. But in her blissful dream, she followed Dizzy deeper into their own private forest.

It got darker the further they went, as the canopy above them closed in thicker. Sounds of thunder boomed overhead again, but still E paid no attention to it. Dizzy raced ahead freely, twisting and turning along the forest path and occasionally dipping out of sight in the shadows. E tried to call out for her, tried to tell her to slow down, but she wouldn't listen.

Much like how E wouldn't listen to Mal calling out her name, struggling to find her in the rain and darkness.

E had taken her eyes off the path for only a split second, and when she looked back, Dizzy had disappeared entirely. E was alone, and the comforting chirps of birds didn't sound here. There were threatening caws, sinister screeches of creatures unseen in the dark, along with the snapping of brush as things crept and slithered along. A crack of thunder exploded right over her head, piercing her eardrums, and her heart broke into a frantic race as she jumped in terror. The trees seemed to reach out for her, dead and spindly branches like skeletal fingers trying to snatch her up and crush her in their grip.

So she ran.

Nothing was familiar anymore, and nothing was safe. She couldn't even find the path and her way back to brighter parts of the forest, and on all sides terrible noises and frightening dangers seemed to close in on her. A log was suddenly a vicious alligator, creeping up out of a foul swamp to swallow her whole. Vines curling around her feet were snakes, bare trees were lumbering monsters with razor sharp claws, and all of it was coming right for her as rain started to barrel down in icy pellets and thunder dulled her senses.

Mal stepped further out on the deck, and froze. The storm rocked the ship up, and down, up, and down. The sea came crashing up over the railings. And there was nothing to hang on to. Nothing to stop one bad jolt from tossing her overboard and into the inky blackness below. But then a flash of lightning zipped across the sky, lighting up the night just enough for her to see E blindly racing across the deck, and in spite of how terrified Mal suddenly found herself, her feet wouldn't let her stay still.

"E!!" she yelled, sure her voice couldn't be heard over the storm but trying desperately anyway.

The waves were twice as high in her eyes, and although she ran after E, she ran on horribly shaky legs, every inch of her ice cold and numb in ways that had little to do with the winter rain. Mal was not one to scare easy, but this? This had her struck with absolute terror.

E felt the same terror with all manner of invisible horrors hot on her heels. A snaking vine tripped her up, and she fell hard onto the wet forest floor. A part of her just wanted to stay there and cower, curl up into a frightened ball and pray for the best, but a stronger part of her made her fight her way back to her feet and run again.

Then she saw it.

An enormous tree, fallen up ahead. It's trunk wide and thick, a veritable impasse. But somehow, E knew. Some instinct deep inside her told her that if she could just get over the trunk, if she could clamber over the top, safety would await her on the other side. The monsters would not follow. Closer and closer she drew to it, and now her heart raced in anticipation of freedom. Full speed ahead she hit it, hands braced on the rough wood and ready to hurdle herself over.

And then something had her around the waist, clamping its jaws tight.

Mal pulled her back just as E was about to throw herself over the ship's rails and into the churning abyss, the two of them falling over onto the soaked deck.

"E, snap out of it!" Mal begged.

E squirmed in her arms, trying to break free, but Mal held fast.

"Hey! Hey!! It's me!" she shouted.

E's eyes snapped open then, Mal's voice finally getting through to her.

"Mal!" she gasped, tears in her eyes.

She had been so very afraid, and Mal was such an overwhelming relief. The rain calmed to a light drizzle, and the night sky went dark and quiet once more. Mal sat herself up, taking E with her, and all at once she was trapped in a fierce hug. The frightened Mal hugged her back just as hard, the two of them shivering in each other's arms as the ship steadied and the storm passed.

"...Look, let's get you to the Grand Duchess in one piece, okay?" Mal's laugh was shaky as she tried to lighten the mood.

E's tears were heartbreaking to listen to.

"Come on, E. We'll get you warm," Mal gently said, helping her to her feet.

They stayed huddled close together all the way below deck, back to their cabin. When the door swung open they found Carlos and Jay awake, Dude's panic having just finally brought them to their feet and clearly about to zoom out the door right when the girls returned. They saw Mal and E drenched, shaking, and their eyes went wide. Dude ran over and paced worriedly around the girls' feet, whining helplessly.

"What the heck happened??" Jay demanded, yanking a spare blanket off his bunk and throwing it around the two.

"E sleepwalks," Mal said nonchalantly, like she wasn't still trembling inside and out.

"But I don't, I...I don't know what happened," E wiped her eyes. "A dream just turned into a nightmare...I just wanted to run away..."

"Yeah, right into the ocean," Mal muttered.

The boys had woken up in time to feel the swaying of the ship, a fact that blared alarmingly in Carlos' head.

"Why didn't you get us??" he too demanded.

"I didn't know how far E had gotten! I just had to go after her!" Mal argued.

_"We_ should've gone after her!" Jay insisted, tensions rising.

"Mal, what were you thinking?! You can't swim!!" Carlos yelled.

It had been his and Jay's first fearful thought, that in all her heroics Mal could've been tossed overboard and left to drown. It was why she panicked, stumbling out onto the deck and seeing the waves crashing on board, threatening to grab her and drag her in. It was why Carlos clenched his hands into fists and fought back tears, fought off the horrifying truth that they could have lost Mal. It was why a quiet, disbelieving gasp escaped E, and she turned herself in the blanket to face Mal.

"...You can't swim, and you still came to save me?"

Calling her voice a whisper would be too generous.

"...I wasn't thinking," Mal looked away, avoiding E's eyes as if she were ashamed. "I was just...I didn't want you getting hurt."

"And what would the three of us have done if something happened to  _you_ because you needlessly risked your life?" Carlos sternly asked, his fear of losing his friend manifesting into anger.

Jay put a steady hand on Carlos' shoulder, seizing a rare opportunity to be the voice of reason.

"Look, Mal is okay, and E is okay. That's all that matters," he quietly yet firmly said. "Yeah, something terrible could have happened, but it didn't. Everyone's safe. So come on, we'll go out into the hall and let them change into dry clothes, and then we'll go back to sleep. We'll all be safe and sound on dry land in the morning."

Carlos kept a stiff upper lip and silently scooped up Dude, following Jay outside the cabin and closing the door behind him.

"...Mal, I can't believe that you— I mean, I just..." E could find no words, save for two that didn't even do her thoughts and feelings justice. "...Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me...I just did what I had to."

Following Jay's words, they silently changed into warmer and dryer sets of pajamas, still fighting off deep chills as the boys came back inside. E wanted so badly to crawl under her covers and bundle up, but she was wary to hit that pillow once more, afraid of descending back into a nightmare. Mal knew that face. Mal was well-acquainted with nightmares when she was younger.

"...E, we're all here," she told her. "You'll be okay this time."

"Three pairs of hands ready to catch you if you fall," Carlos mustered a smile, dropping down onto the edge of his bed.

Dude barked.

"And one set of paws," Jay chuckled.

And suddenly, so very suddenly, E didn't see herself in a room with a band of thieves. E now saw herself in a room with her friends. So with one friend climbing the ladder to sleep protectively above, two friends getting comfy in the bunks beside her, and one very furry friend curled up on her tummy, the threat of nightmares loomed no more.

With her heartbeat just now starting to settle—admittedly with the help of the sight of E tucked safely in bed—Mal hung her head over the edge of her bunk and gave a smirk.

"Goodnight, princess."

"Goodnight, princess," Jay and Carlos playfully chorused.

E laughed, such a happy, carefree sound. And let her eyes fall shut.

"Goodnight, you guys."

* * *

 

There was no telling what stopped Maleficent from hurling the magic mirror right out the window and calming a raging snarl just in time to hear it shatter on the snowy street below. As it were, she still clenched the thing so tightly in her hand that the already splintered glass threatened to crack some more.

"Mal rescued her," Diablo flatly said.

"I saw, you birdbrain!" Maleficent snapped.

She shooed the raven off her shoulder so she could furiously pace the room in peace.

"I had the princess right there,  _right there!"_ the sorceress raged. "And that girl  _dares_  to snatch her from the brink of death?!"

"Rescuing damsels in distress. A hideous character trait," if Diablo's beak could manage a sneer, he'd be wearing one.

"You're telling me. Fine! Fine fine fine!" Maleficent stopped and turned, hurrying to the window with her cape billowing out behind her.

Even at night, and even in its fallen state, Auradon still shone across the way from the Isle of the Lost.

"The minions can't kill her. A burning train can't kill her. A ship tossed like a rubber duck in a bathtub can't kill her! Well, Diablo, it looks like I'm just going to have to do it myself."

A squawk from the raven served in place of a gasp.

"Mistress, you're leaving The Isle??"

"I could use a vacation," Maleficent snorted. "It'll do me good, Diablo. Get some fresh air, kill a princess, say hi to the daughter."

Her scepter glowed a wicked green in her hand, and an equally wicked smile slipped across her lips.

"...Easy peasy."


	6. Chapter 6

Mal figured it was a good thing E was so cute, otherwise she would not have taken quite so kindly to being constantly rudely awakened by the spunky blue-haired orphan. She didn't even have a chance to check what time it was when E dragged her, Jay, and Carlos above deck, but the early light gray of the sky told her she seriously didn't want the answer. Not even the ocean breeze could snap her awake fast enough, and Mal yawned and rubbed her eyes as the four stood over the ship's railing.  
  
Villeneuve. It was there on the horizon, lights glittering and twinkling in the dawn like the jewel Auradon used to be, once upon a time.

"It's  _beautiful,"_  E said on a stunned breath, eyes wide and dazed.  
  
"It used to be just a tiny little village," Carlos explained with a drowsy mumble. "Really went in the exact opposite direction of Auradon over the years."  
  
"I'm really here..." E marveled.  
  
Mal marveled too, suddenly wide awake at the sight of E's shining excitement.  
  
"...Thanks, you guys. Mal, Jay, Carlos, thank you," E cutely gathered them all up in a warm group hug.  
  
"We haven't even met the Grand Duchess yet," Mal pointed out, cheeks turning pink from being smushed so close to E.  
  
"It doesn't matter," E shook her head as she let her friends go. "Just being here in Villeneuve brings me closer to finding my past than I've ever been before. And even if it turns out that I'm not the princess, there still has to be something here to lead me to who I really am."  
  
Mal was glad E's arm wasn't around her anymore, for she stiffened.  
  
"...Of course you're the princess, E," she quietly said. "No doubt about it."  
  
She had to say it out loud, hear it in her own ears. Because if she didn't, she might remember that E was just the girl they were using to con their way into an old woman's fortune. A pawn in a game to be left on the playing field when Mal's crew had the money in their hands and three tickets to bigger and brighter futures far, far from Auradon.  
  
"...Look, we probably still have at least an hour before we actually reach the city, and even longer before they let us off this boat, so I'm going back to the cabin to get a little more sleep, yeah?" Mal spun on her heels, quickly ducking away from E and the boys.   
  
Her feet couldn't walk her away fast enough, as evidence by the way E easily caught up and fell into step beside her.  
  
"Mal, you know, I've heard that Villeneuve has amazing food. I mean, anything has to be amazing compared to what we eat back in Auradon, but maybe before we see the Grand Duchess...maybe we could all get some breakfast?"  
  
E's lips said "You, me, Jay, and Carlos". Her eyes simply said "You and me". Mal, wit and cool suave always at the ready, suddenly didn't know what to say.  
  
"...Count on it," was what she eventually settled on, turning on a dime and hurrying away once more.  
  
When their ship finally drew into the city harbor and Mal's crew was dressed and ready to disembark, Jay stood by Mal's side as they lugged their things down the gangway, Carlos and E and Dude behind them.  
  
"The princess has expensive tastes," Jay leaned over and muttered, bringing up E's breakfast whims.  
  
"We pickpocketed our butts off for months to afford everything on this trip. What princess wants, princess gets," Mal said back.  
  
Jay frowned as they hit the crowded dock and started weaving their way in and around everyone.  
  
"Which Mal is that talking? The one who doesn't want to risk our fake princess getting mad and running off before we see the Grand Duchess, or the one who just wants to see E smile?"  
  
Mal froze in her tracks long enough for E to accidentally stumble into her with a surprised "oof".  
  
"Sorry, M!" E hurriedly apologized, very sincere.  
  
Mal assured her it was fine just as quickly, and then continued leading the way with Jay while Carlos toted Dude along and talked with E behind them.  
  
"...The Mal you never used to question," Mal answered Jay with a leer and a sharp bite in her hushed voice.  
  
"Look Mal, I see you crushing on E, okay? And that's cute and everything, I can't blame you, but she's not sticking around with us. And we aren't sticking around with her. Whether she really is the lost princess or not, we part ways at the Grand Duchess and never see her again. I just don't want to see you get too deep into this when we all know we'll have to say goodbye."  
  
"What do you take me for, Jay? I know how to run a con," Mal whispered with even more sharpness. "You think a pair of pretty brown eyes show up and suddenly I've lost it? We get E to the Grand Duchess, she either passes the test or I use our insurance policy, and then we're gone with enough money to live like royalty. It was my plan, remember? Don't think I've forgotten it."  
  
Jay had known Mal forever, their friendship going all the way back to when they were just eight year old kids swiping mushy fruit and stale bread from crumbling Auradon market stalls together. He knew what her defensive side sounded like.

* * *

 

One didn't meet the Grand Duchess of Auradon in the frayed clothes and torn leather E and the gang had sported their entire trip. Villeneuve was enjoying a sunny and warm winter as opposed to Auradon's bitter and snowy one, and E was happy to trade her blue trenchcoat for the dress Mal had bought her yesterday on the road to the ship. It was after a warm breakfast of crepes and coffee that Mal and the boys stood in the hotel room and unpacked much snazzier outfits from their suitcases, leaving E sure she didn't want to question how and who they had stolen them from back in Auradon. But later on, anxiously checking her reflection in the bathroom mirror, E came to realize just how quickly it was all happening.  
  
This was it. Sleeping on the musty wooden floor of a decrepit orphanage, E never imagined that she could ever be a princess, heir to power and castles and glittering status. But just days ago her heart led her to Cinderellasburg, and Cinderellasburg led her to Mal, who stood so sure and firm that E could really be destined for all those things. And maybe Mal and the boys could be wrong, maybe E could look into the face of a kindly Grand Duchess and be crushed to learn that she wouldn't be calling her "Grandma", but...what if they were right? What if E would clench her necklace tight in her hand and let the “ _Together in Villeneuve”_  be the key to her future and family? What if in just a matter of hours, she would have a home and a grandmother and years and years to sit and catch each other up on?  
  
Thoughts both excited and panicked were interrupted by Mal poking her head into the doorway, catching a glimpse of E.  
  
"...Hi princess," she said with a smirk, mesmerized for a second time by E in that dazzling blue dress.  
  
"Hi," E giggled, especially touched by the nickname this time. She greeted Mal's reflection in the mirror before turning to face her in person.  
  
"Nervous?" Mal asked.  
  
"A little," E freely admitted. "I really can't decide whether I believe I'm the missing princess or not."  
  
Mal shrugged.  
  
"Only one way to find out for sure. We just have to get you past Jane's test, and then Grand Duchess Potts will give you your answer."   
  
"But Villeneuve is a much bigger place than I thought it was going to be. If I'm not who we've been saying I am, then I'm not sure I know where to go to find my next clue to my past," E fretted.  
  
"...We'll help," Mal said firmly, and perhaps a little foolishly. "We got you this far, after all."  
  
"I couldn't ask you guys to do that. With just three words on a necklace I'd only be leading you around on a wild goose chase."  
  
"So we follow you on a wild goose chase. E...that's what friends do," Mal smiled.  
  
A very different story from the one she told Jay after leaving the ship.  
  
E returned Mal's smile, albeit a little sadly. She knew the three had other plans far beyond Villeneuve. She knew that they'd all be saying goodbye to each other soon enough, and no matter what kind of future awaited her, her new friends would most certainly be left in the past.  
  
"...I'll miss you guys," she murmured, hanging her head.  
  
"...E, we aren't going anywhere," Mal said with a start.  
  
"Not yet, but soon enough. M, come on. I know we're all on different paths here."  
  
Mal came into the room, slowly. Took E by the hands when she reached her.  
  
"What did you tell Dizzy when you left the orphanage?" Mal wondered.  
  
E's smile turned less and less sad as she recalled the memory.  
  
"I told her it wasn't goodbye. I told her it was just 'see you later'."  
  
"Then we won't say goodbye either. Princess or no princess, orphan or no orphan, no matter what happens after today, it's only 'see you later' for us...for all of us."  
  
Mal added the last words as a hasty afterthought, not entirely sure herself of who she meant the first time in saying "us".  
  
"...So, your majesty, ready to become Princess Evie?" Mal squeezed her hands and led her out of the bathroom.  
  
E wasn't at all sure, but she nodded nonetheless.  
  
It was a funny sight to see the boys all dressed up in clean-cut pants and nice jackets, and an even funnier sight to see that Carlos had put a little black bow tie on Dude. Without looking back they all left the hotel room together, ready to cross the city to the Grand Duchess' winter home.  
  
"Okay, so, Jane is the key," Carlos started to explain to E as they strolled the sidewalk. "She's spent enough time with Grand Duchess Potts to know everything about Princess Evie, all the little ins and outs."  
  
"But I know all the ins and outs of Princess Evie too, right?" E asked, suddenly unsure of everything she'd learned from Mal and the boys.  
  
"Well, let's see. How old were your parents when they got married?" Mal asked back.  
  
"Twenty-eight," E dutifully answered, remembering being taught that.  
  
Jay quizzed her next.  
  
"And your brother, Prince Ben? How did he like his chocolate chip cookies?"  
  
"With walnuts."   
  
"She's on the right track," Carlos said with a smile and a nod. "No other girl that's been shown to the Grand Duchess will have known any of those things. Jane will just  _have_  to let us through."  
  
"So what do you guys think? Will Grand Duchess Potts look at me at just...know?" E wondered.  
  
"Well that's what we did, right?" Mal pointed out assuringly. "You're the spitting image of Evie. Poor woman searching that long for her granddaughter, she'll definitely know right away."  
  
E didn't know why she was expecting a castle when they eventually reached the so-called winter home. Maybe it was just the thought of royalty, the old glamor of Auradon, but even still she was not disappointed when a towering castle turned out to be a sprawling manor. The lawn impeccably trimmed and the brightest of green even in wintertime, vines creeping beautifully up the russet brick walls, flower boxes and a garden filled with a veritable rainbow of soft colors.   
  
"Your grandma has a sweet place," Jay whistled as they started up the cobblestone front walk.  
  
The door was old wood, but polished to shine, and watched silently as four nicely dressed kids and one nicely dressed dog huddled in front of it. E suddenly felt like the door was ten feet tall and made of looming concrete. Carlos put his hand on her shoulder.  
  
"We're all here, your majesty," he laughed easily, the sound calming E's nerves.  
  
"Whenever you're ready, E," Mal gently said.  
  
"...I'm ready," E nodded briskly, psyching herself up.  
  
So Carlos raised a fist, and he knocked.  
  
The girl who promptly answered the door looked out at them all with dazzlingly bright eyes.  
  
"...Carlos?"  
  
"Hi Jane," Carlos smiled and waved.  
  
Jane gasped, eyes glittering with excitement like she hadn't really believed an old friend was at the door until he'd spoken.  
  
"Carlos! Hi!" she bounced on her feet for a moment before coming forward and hugging him.  
  
Mal watched them laughing together before noticing E out of the corner of her eye, where she stood stiffly beside Mal like she was already being judged and studied by Jane like something under a microscope. Without a word, Mal took her hand and held it, feeling all the tension E carried slowly melt away the moment she did so.  
  
"It's so good to see you, but what are you doing here in Villeneuve?" Jane asked, peering around Carlos to see the others.  
  
Carlos did the introductions.  
  
"Well...we’re here on business, actually. These are my friends. Jay, Mal, and...her majesty Princess Evie, lost heir to the royal throne of Auradon."  
  
Jane's eyes were wide and curious as she looked to E, stepping from the doorway of the manor and coming down the front walk to have a better look at her.  
  
"...The lost princess?" she said aloud to no one in particular.  
  
"She's the spitting image of Evie, isn't she?" Mal said proudly, as if she herself had a hand in sculpting and painting E's beautiful face.  
  
"She  _does_  look so much like her..." Jane agreed musingly. "But a lot of other girls who came to see Grand Duchess Potts did too."  
  
"So ask her about her past," Jay insisted, nudging E forward. "Those other girls can pretend all they want, but no one's going to know Evie like Evie herself, right?"  
  
Jane couldn't argue with that, and invited them all inside.  
  
"Dude, stay," Carlos told the dog, who had been sitting obediently at his feet the whole time.  
  
Dude whimpered in protest, but nevertheless sat still as Mal's crew headed inside the manor and closed the door behind him.  
  
E's breath absolutely left her the moment she stepped inside. This was no castle, no palace, it wasn't even the manor it appeared to be on the outside. It was a home. Jane took them across the foyer and into the living room where cozy armchairs and couches were clearly well-loved, draped with pillows that just  _looked_ as soft as clouds. There were bookshelves lined with every manner of book, tables adorned with glittering and elegant trinkets, pictures of faces and people unfamiliar to E but treasured by someone else hanging on the walls. The sort of place where a young E still trapped inside the orphanage used to imagine she could wrap herself in a blanket on a cold evening, make a cup of hot chocolate, and take in a very dear book by the fireplace (for there really  _was_  a fireplace here).  
  
Jane invited everyone to sit, and as Mal and E took a place next to each other on one of the love seats E very slyly reached out a hand to see if the pillows were truly as soft as they looked. And they were.   
  
"...So," Jane began, straightening out her dress before she sat down in an armchair across from the girls. "You think you're the lost princess?"  
  
The question wasn't snide or disbelieving, but still E was seized by that terrible feeling that she was being judged and studied, critiqued under the lens of that imaginary microscope. It was just the tiniest, a move imperceptible to everyone else, but Mal scooted in closer to her so that they sat shoulder to shoulder. Just that one bit of touch did wonders.  
  
"My name is E. Or least, it was until just a few days ago when I came to Cinderellasburg and discovered a whole history I never even knew about," E smiled shyly at Jane before remembering her princess training and turning it into something more pleasant, more confident.  
  
"'Came to Cinderellasburg'? From where?" Jane wondered.  
  
"From the orphanage outside of the city. I was found lost on the streets when I was six with no idea who I was or where I came from, and I was taken to the orphanage. I grew up there, until I was old enough to be kicked out."  
  
"She was the same age the princess was when she went missing after the invasion," Jay shrewdly reminded everyone. "A six year old princess named Evie disappears and a six year old orphan named E turns up later? You can't tell me that's just a coincidence."  
  
"It  _would_  be a crazy one," Jane admitted with a little laugh. "But, the Grand Duchess has seen and met with  _so_  many girls, a lot of them just as convincing as E and all of them just after the reward money."  
  
"That isn't us," Mal insisted, a serious set to her face. "Everything we've seen and everything we've heard has told us that E is the real princess Evie, and we traveled all this way with hardly a coin to our names just to bring a lost granddaughter back to her grandmother. So ask her questions, quiz her like I'm sure you had to quiz all those other girls."  
  
"But Evie is royalty, everyone knows everything about her," Jane pointed out the inevitable flaw that came to light each and every time she tested a girl before sending her on to the Grand Duchess. "The facts are all in the books, anyone who can  _read_ could claim to be the princess."  
  
"So don't ask her the facts, ask her the history," Carlos helpfully said. "The Grand Duchess must have told you things about her granddaughter that only she would know, right?"  
  
"And that only Evie would know," Mal added.  
  
And that only four very dedicated con artists looking to score a large cash award would know.  
  
"Do the books say stuff like what Evie's favorite bedtime story was? Or what Queen Belle would sing to her when she couldn't sleep at night?" Carlos added.  
  
E saw her chance to shine, to show off everything she'd learned and everything she'd been taught as Mal and her friends had taken her on a journey to the past.  
  
"Do the books say that my sister's nickname for my brother was Bennyboo, and that he hated every single syllable of it?" she said with an easy smile, as if reminiscing. As if she actually remembered such a thing.  
  
Jane stiffened in her seat, eyes going wide and mouth gaping for a moment before she remembered her place and composed herself.  
  
"...No, they definitely do not say that," she marveled at the fact that she even heard E say it in the first place.  
  
The scheming smirk on Mal's face passed itself off as a genuine smile to everyone who wasn't Jay or Carlos.  
  
"Go ahead," she said to Jane. "Meet the princess."  
  
E had no idea how long she sat there being tested, keeping her "royal" composure and cool as internally she scrambled to keep a grip on all that Mal and the boys had told her about herself and obediently answer when Jane threw out her questions. How she liked her tea, which tiara was Princess Audrey's favorite, even the name of her grandfather's horse. E was glad that the name "Philippe" stuck in her mind as clearly as it did. It felt like an hour, maybe it was two, or maybe it was nowhere near close to that, only moments that Jane prodded into her past in her efforts to discern if E was the real deal or not.  
  
Jay could hear the clinking of coins growing louder and louder in his head with each passing minute. It was like E was a walking goldmine, and the further Jane dug, the more treasure she unearthed to line his pockets with. Carlos could feel it too, like electricity in the air. They were only getting closer to that reward money. Mal, who had grown very, very acquainted to the word "bitter" over her lifetime, was suddenly finding herself beginning to make friends with "bittersweet" as well.   
  
E was on a roll. Mal could see it on Jane's face that she was just a question or two away from being utterly and without a doubt convinced that Auradon's long-lost princess was sitting just a coffee table away from her. It was all coming together, she and her crew had crafted the perfect princess, the perfect lie, and maybe even before the day was out they would be reaping the rewards. E would stay, be doted and fawned over by a grandma that may or may not have been hers, and Mal would go, loaded with cash that she may or may not have rightfully earned.  
  
"...Wow," Jane breathed, reeling from E's perfect recollection of her supposedly missing past.  
  
"We told you," Carlos grinned. "It's her, it's the princess. There's no way she isn't."  
  
Jane didn't disagree, but there was a hint of hesitation in her expression.  
  
"...I just have one more question. Not even I know the answer to it, the only two people in the world who do are Evie, and Grand Duchess Potts."  
  
Now it was Mal and the boys who were stiffening in their seats. They didn't like the sound of that. To be perfectly honest, E wasn't sure she did either.  
  
"The castle was the very first place that was hit in the invasion, where it all began. Every single villain from the Isle of the Lost attacked and held the castle under siege. The king and queen were killed, Princess Audrey and the Crown Prince too. So many people lost their lives when the villains invaded, but the members of the royal family were the first to do so. In all that chaos and all that confusion...how did you and the Grand Duchess escape?"  
  
Mal froze. Jay's blood ran cold in his veins, as did Carlos'. They hadn't taught E that. They hadn't taught her that. They hadn't even  _thought_ of it, how on earth could they have taught her?? No...it was all crumbling to ruin before their very eyes. All their hard work, all their plans, every stupid pocket they picked to afford to come this far and every stupid book they studied just to be able to fill their fake princess' head when they finally found her. It was all for nothing.  _Nothing._ And here it was, bursting into fiery flames before them while they were helpless to stop it.  
  
E knew she had to lie. She had to say  _something,_  and a lie was the only thing she had at her disposal. Jane wouldn't know, only the Grand Duchess would know, and if E could just come up with something elaborate enough then she could at least chalk it all up to an honest mistake, that crazy coincidence Jay had mentioned where E came so close to being the lost princess but fell short at the finish line. Jane was waiting. Maybe E didn't have the memory, but she had the imagination. Eleven years in a crowded orphanage with nothing to her name had at least gifted her with that much. She'd never thought so fast in her life as Jane sat and watched her, ears perked to hear an answer. How  _would_  a frightened six year old and an equally frightened grandmother escape a villainous siege unharmed?  
  
"...There was a little kitchen girl," E began, gaze faraway and eyebrows furrowed like she really was digging deep into memories that were buried far, far down with age. "...I met her earlier that day when I was sneaking around the kitchens, trying to find my birthday cake."  
  
She giggled at the imaginary mischief of a curious six year old girl. Mal, on the other hand, didn't find it quite so amusing. As a matter of fact, her heart had suddenly stopped entirely.  
  
"She found us in the ballroom when the villains attacked, and there was...a door in the wall. A secret passage, I guess, that only she knew about. She got us inside, and it led us out of the castle."  
  
Mal stood up without a word, acting like she merely needed to stretch her legs as she turned her back on everyone and shuffled over to the far side of the room to gaze out the lattice window. To hide the fact that her entire world had just been turned on its head.  
  
It was Jay and Carlos who always read every stupid book to learn every stupid fact they would need to fill a fake princess' head. Mal never read them, she only pretended to, just to keep the boys from throwing unwanted questions at her as to why she thought she was too good to do her own homework.  
  
She didn't have to read up on how Princess Evie liked her tea, for she knew the princess didn't like tea at all. Mal was there, everyday, watching as four cups of tea and one cup of hot chocolate were poured and set onto a shining silver platter to be delivered to the royal family come tea time. She didn't need an encyclopedia of royal treasures to tell her which tiara was Princess Audrey's favorite, for she had polished the glittering crown of pink and blue jewels enough times to know that Audrey wore it on every occasion and needed it to look its best. And it wasn't a book that would teach Mal the name of Grandpa Maurice's horse, because she was the one who snuck into the royal stables upon Maurice's every visit to feed carrots to Philippe and have a four-legged friend to talk to.  
  
Mal had been the little kitchen girl, an employee of the castle and ward of the royal family.  
  
And E really was the princess, the lost princess Evie that Mal had met in the kitchens and helped escape during the invasion.  
  
This really was her home. Grand Duchess Potts really was her grandmother. And Mal really had brought a lost and lonely girl back to her only family.  
  
"Mal!! Did you hear that??"  
  
Carlos' voice was the only thing that anchored her back to the world she used to know, a world where E was just E and a con was just a con. When she turned around, Jane and E were gone, but Jay and Carlos bounded across the room to meet her with the most ecstatic of boyish grins stretching their faces.  
  
"We're meeting the Grand Duchess tonight!!" Jay explained. "She'll be out seeing some dumb play and Jane will take us to the theater and introduce us!"  
  
"E did it! She really did it!" Carlos bounced on his feet.  
  
"Guys..." Mal hardly had a voice, no way could it be heard in all the excitement.  
  
"I thought we were done for when Jane asked that last question, but man, can E pull off a lie or what??" Jay was wholeheartedly impressed. "It's too bad she won't be tagging along, she would've made a good addition to the team like that!"  
  
"Guys," Mal tried to say again.  
  
"She was perfect," Carlos laughed. "And like you've been saying, Mal, it doesn't matter if that isn't really how the princess escaped. All we have to do is get close enough to Grand Duchess Potts for you to show her that box thing you have, and—"  
  
"Guys!!" Mal finally snapped, hands coiling into fists at her side.  
  
The boys shut up, expressions wiped blank in surprise.  
  
"...It wasn't a lie," Mal lowered her voice again, speaking quietly. Almost defeatedly. "Princess Evie really did escape the castle through a secret passage in the walls."  
  
Jay blinked in confusion. Carlos followed his lead.  
  
"...And how would you know that?" Jay scoffed. "Jane said the only people in the world who know that are the Grand Duchess, and Evie."  
  
"And the one who helped them get out. You guys, it was  _me._  I was the kitchen girl, I worked in the castle. Didn't you two ever wonder how I seemed to know my way around so well when we made it our hideout? Or how a thief and pickpocket like me knew exactly where to point you to study the history of the royal family back when we started planning this whole scheme? It was me. I was serving in the ballroom with the chefs during Evie's birthday party when the villains attacked, and I led her and her grandmother to the hidden passageway. I got knocked out by some magic, probably got mistaken for dead myself, and when I came to the place was in ruins and I found this on the floor of the ballroom."  
  
Mal took the aforementioned box out of her pocket, with the sword and heart clasp.  
  
"It was Evie's present from her grandmother. She tried to go back for it, but I wrestled her to safety just before that blast of magic hit me."  
  
The boys' jaws were practically to the floor.  
  
"Then...if all that is true...then E is really home," Carlos breathed in astonished wonder.  
  
"...You two have known each other all this time and just had no idea," Jay added with a start.  
  
"And we're going to keep it that way," Mal flatly said, putting the box away. "We finish this thing exactly as we planned. We hand E over to her grandmother, we take the money, and we're gone."  
  
"What??" the boys blurted together, Jay getting his sense back first and continuing to speak.  
  
"You're not going to tell her??" he demanded. "You're the reason she's alive and the reason she's finally found her family! Mal, you  _like_  her, after all those heart-eyes you've made the whole way here, you're just going to let her go without a word?"  
  
"Princesses don't fall for kitchen girls," Mal grimly said. "Don't you get it? We didn't just bring E back to her grandmother, we brought a princess back to Auradon. She has a throne to take, a kingdom to rebuild, countless people in Cinderellasburg and all over the country waiting for her to restore Auradon to what it used to be. So many lives are counting on her...I'm not going to take that away from them just to keep a girl I really care about all to myself."  
  
"Mal..." Carlos uttered her name with heartbreaking sympathy.   
  
"Mal!!"  
  
E came rushing back into the room uttering Mal's name with heart-pounding excitement. Jay and Carlos parted a way for her like jumping out of the path of a speeding truck as she made a beeline right for Mal and threw her arms around her in the biggest of hugs.  
  
"Mal, Jane is going to show us around the city before the play tonight!" she squealed, pulling away from Mal just enough to look into her stunned face. "We'll go shopping, see all the sights, all the  _fashion,_  M! And by the end of the night we'll meet the Grand Duchess and...thank you, Mal."  
  
E buried her face in Mal's hair as she hugged her again, both of them holding on for far longer than they should have.  
  
"Thank you so much," E said quietly. "You and the boys. I owe you guys everything."  
  
Mal's arms lingered after E for a moment even after she pulled away, just wanting to tug her back into her embrace and never let go. E took Jay and Carlos by the hand then, her smile so light and exuberant that Mal couldn't take her eyes off of it. The exact same smile that E had met her with eleven years ago, wandering the vast castle kitchen and looking up at her with a beaming  _"Hi!"._  There shouldn't have been any doubt in Mal's mind when they met again as teenagers in the very same ballroom where they said goodbye as children—Evie hadn't changed one bit.  
  
"We left Dude outside, let's go tell him the good news!" E excitedly said, whirling around and tugging Carlos and Jay along with her. 

Mal listened to the racing of feet give way to the opening and closing of the front door, and then she could see the three of them out on the front walkway from her spot at the window. Dude didn't know who he was more excited to see first, tail wagging in a blur and little legs bouncing him up in the air to get at E, then Carlos, then Jay. The four of them were so happy out there, grinning and laughing and in Dude's case, barking. That was how Mal remembered Evie, all smiles and laughter and not afraid to butt heads with Mal and her sour scowls as she glared her down from her perch on the kitchen countertop. They'd never officially met until that day, but still Mal had always known her. And that was exactly how she remembered her.  
  
 _"...Villeneuve holds the key to her past. Yes princess, I've found you at last,"_  Mal softly sang to herself, watching through the window.  _"No more pretend, you'll be gone, that's the end..."_  
  
She turned away then, turned her back on the window and looked out across the living room that E would very soon be making her own. Glass worked both ways, after all. If Mal could see out, then the others could see in.  
  
And with her eyes squeezing shut and the sleeve of her shirt pressed to quivering lips, Mal certainly wasn't about to let them see her cry. 


	7. Chapter 7

Even after a life of poverty, living on the streets, stealing and fighting and lying just to get by in a crumbling kingdom that never really cared about her even in its heyday, Mal sometimes wondered if formalwear was the real enemy here.

Royalty or no royalty, Mal and her tomboyish tendencies weren't about to be caught dead in some frilly dress, so as she and Jay waited outside the opulent performance hall in the heart of Villeneuve she was clad in a crisp suit jacket and pants without a single rip or tear, Jay sporting the same beside her as they waited on Carlos to arrive with E and Jane. Mal's artistic eye couldn't even be bothered to curiously study the theater as they waited, as the side of her that would normally be itching to take a crack at drawing the towering columns, baroque cupolas, and golden statues adorning the roof was simply too preoccupied with more pressing thoughts tonight.  
  
"...Are you really not going to tell her?" Jay sat on one of the stone steps with his jacket draped over his arm, watching Mal contemplate pacing.  
  
Mal had lost track of how many times she'd said it.  
  
"Jay, we're going to finish this exactly as we planned it. Come intermission, Jane is going to take E and I to the Grand Duchess' box, I'll make the introductions, and when we walk out of here tonight E will have her grandmother and we'll have our money."  
  
Jay shook his head.  
  
"This isn't right. You and E have this past, this connection, and you're just going to walk out of her life without a word?"  
  
"That's exactly what I'm going to do," Mal grumbled.  
  
"You saved her, Mal."  
  
"And now I'm saving myself!" Mal snapped, rounding on Jay. "Because if E has to make the choice between her family and her future, and some lowly con she just met, I know exactly what she's going to choose. The past doesn't matter, Jay. Some crazy connection doesn't matter, alright? She's never going to choose me."  
  
Jay got to his feet with a heavy sigh, making the short trek across the steps to Mal.  
  
"Maybe you're right. It sucks, and I so wish things could be different for you, but E's spent her whole life dreaming about finding the truth. Don't you think she deserves to know the truth of this, too?"  
  
"No. She doesn't need to know this truth."  
  
"What truth?"  
  
The car had pulled up so quietly to the sidewalk curb that Mal and Jay hadn't even realized it was there, they just turned at the sudden sound of E's voice and saw the valet holding the door open for Jane and Carlos to slip out of the backseat after her.  
  
It was quite the fun little afternoon they had, shopping in the city with Jane—at least, Mal assumed it was fun, she didn't exactly remember most of it with her head still spinning from the fresh revelation that E really was the lost princess that Auradon had been searching over a decade for. What she did remember was Jay and Carlos carrying the bags of an absolutely delighted E, and that she must have picked out the most stunning of outfits and accessories for her big night at the theater. Draped in a long and flowing fur coat, with jewelry glittering like pure starlight as it hung from her ears and around her neck, it was clearly obvious that that was the case.   
  
This was Evie.   
  
Mal had started out on a journey with E the orphan, with her fingerless gloves and tattered overcoat. Now, here right in front of her and for the whole glamorous city to see was Evie the princess, wearing her hair in a braided updo with a single river of blue hanging long and loose on the right side of her face. Evie the princess, radiant and confident, and born to take this chance to finally find her family, reunite with her past.  
  
"...E, you're  _beautiful,"_ Mal's voice came out as a whisper, absolutely stunned. Beautiful wasn't the right word for her. Beautiful didn't even come close, but the sight of E had Mal hardly even remembering her own name, no way could she think up more prolific sentiments at the moment.  
  
"Thank you, Mal."  
  
Breathtaking. There was a word to describe E's smile just then. Mal saw Carlos standing and smirking at her mess of feelings with Jane on his arm, and then tentatively offered her own arm to the princess. The five of them ascended the steps and entered the theater, in and of itself strikingly reminiscent of a palace, a castle. Villeneuve had truly become the found to Auradon's lost, and it was only fitting that a lost girl from Auradon should come to Villeneuve to be found.  
  
Jane, as the Grand Duchess' assistant and advisor, commanded a fair bit of attention and importance, and a sharply dressed theater staff was ready and waiting to swarm to her side and take the jackets of her and her party to the coat room. And when Mal turned around then, and really saw E...  
  
She almost swore she could cry.  
  
E was like the evening sky above them, a deep sapphire dress twinkling and sparkling like the stars themselves were woven into it, hanging off of one shoulder and hugging her the same way the sky hugged the horizon. No longer a princess, but a goddess of night she seemed to be, with red evening gloves matching the perfectly painted red of her lips.  
  
Sublime. Heavenly.  _Ethereal._ There were the words that were better suited to E tonight.  
  
"...Mal?"  
  
E had caught her staring—no, not staring, marveling. Honestly trying to keep from tearing up at one of the most beautiful sights she'd ever seen. E was waiting to take Mal's arm again, for the two of them to make their way further into the theater and to their seats in the mezzanine. Mal snapped herself out of it to join her at her side, and when E looped her arm through Mal's they began their walk.  
  
"...M, I'm so scared," E breathed, tightening her hold on Mal.  
  
"What are you scared of?" Mal gently asked as they climbed the stairs to the theater's upper levels.  
  
"My life changing. Forever," E was overcome with a nervous smile and nervous laughter.  
  
"But for the better," Mal said encouragingly.  
  
"I know, I know, but...hasn't it ever happened to you? A big, amazing change that you know is wonderful but still it scares you to the core?"  
  
"...Yeah, actually. That's happened to me before," Mal quietly murmured.  
  
It was happening to her right that very second.  
  
She could see the princess' eyes searching the very moment they took their seats, glancing all around to catch sight of the Grand Duchess even though E admittedly didn't know what she looked like.  
  
"I don't think she's here yet," E breathed, her words spilling out nervously.  
  
It was the nerves Mal heard, not the words. She carefully twined her fingers within E's, feeling the soft satin of her evening gloves as she did so.  
  
"E, don't worry about the Grand Duchess just yet. She isn't the reason this is your night. You're in  _Villeneuve,_ the place you've been dreaming of for as long as you can remember. You went shopping, you took on the town, you're sitting here wearing couture in the grand theater about to see a play so prestigious that royalty has a box seat. You're a regular princess, E. Cinderella herself couldn't ask for a better story. And you know what else?"  
  
"...What?"  
  
"Dizzy would be so proud."  
  
E could cry. Or kiss Mal. Or cry and kiss her all at the same time while the fluttering in her chest that flipped her heart around when Mal flashed that encouraging smile at her only made her cry even harder.  
  
"M, I can't...I keep saying thank you, but I don't think I'll ever find the right words to  _really_  thank you for everything that you and the boys have done for me. You've changed my life."  
  
"...You've changed ours," Mal quietly said. "We'll call it even."  
  
With a swell of bravery and pure emotion overtaking Mal she treated the princess as one should with a soft and gracious kiss to her hand, just as the lights dimmed, and the curtain rose.

* * *

 

E hadn't fallen asleep, but with Mal's touch bringing her out of her deep thoughts and back to reality as the theater settled for intermission, it certainly felt like she had.  
  
"E? Come on, let's go find Jane."  
  
Jane, who was sitting with the Grand Duchess but would be out looking for Mal and E now that it was intermission. The two girls stood to make their way out into the aisle, but Jay and Carlos were standing along with them.  
  
"Go get 'em, princess," Jay grinned, giving E the biggest of hugs.  
  
He was warm and sheltering, just like a big brother. E could've stayed there hugging him for the rest of the evening, but Carlos was awaiting his turn as well.  
  
"Auradon's gonna be so lucky to have you," he said as he got his own hug in.  
  
"Not half as lucky as I am to have you guys," E said to her friends. "...Okay, Mal. I'm ready."  
  
But still plenty scared, keeping that ever-tight grip on Mal's arm as they walked.  
  
"...What will I say?" E fretted.  
  
"Just leave the talking to me. All the Grand Duchess has to do is look and listen, and she'll know it's you."  
  
"...I changed my mind, I'm not ready," E wildly shook her head and spun on a dime, not sure where she would head but feeling like anywhere would be fine so long as she went in the complete opposite direction of where they were going now.  
  
Mal was faster, catching her around the waist and pulling E back to her side in one fluid motion.  
  
"Hey hey hey, none of that," she lightly scolded. "E, it'll be fine.  _You'll_ be fine. Believe me...you have nothing to worry about."  
  
They stopped at what had to have been the door to the Grand Duchess' box, looming and imposing to E like it was made of plated steel instead of simple wood.  
  
"You have to be announced first, so wait here," Mal said easily, herself not at all overcome with nerves at meeting Grand Duchess Potts.  
  
In any other universe, perhaps Mal would be nervous. In any other universe she wouldn't be Grand Duchess Potts, but E's grandmother, plain and simple. Mal would be nervous then, for what on earth was she supposed to say?  
  
 _"Your granddaughter is incredible."  
  
"She's all I've been thinking about lately."  
  
"I've been wanting to kiss her all evening and no one is as beautiful as her tonight."_  
  
But as Mal opened the door and let it fall shut as she stepped through, she remembered she had a con to run, and was instantly thankful. For a con gave her a script to stick with, a script gave her the words to say, and if she already had the words to say she was spared from fumbling around the desire to kiss the one and only heir to the royal throne. Mal rather liked her head, after all, she could do without it being chopped off.  
  
"Is she out there?" Jane was right at the door, expecting Mal.  
  
Mal nodded.  
  
"Ready and waiting. And...the Grand Duchess?"  
  
They were in a small seating area, a royal blue curtain separating them from the box seats. Jane glanced over her shoulder, where the Grand Duchess Potts sat looking out over the theater just beyond the fabric divide.  
  
"Ready and waiting," she too said, taking a deep breath. "...You're about to reunite the Grand Duchess with Auradon's Crown Princess."  
  
"...No. I'm about to reunite a grandmother with her granddaughter."  
  
Mal took a deep breath too, steadying herself, and then Jane pulled back the curtain.  
  
She was just as Mal remembered her, looking every bit a grandmother and seeming to have not aged a day as she sat gazing down at the orchestra playing a piece for the intermission. Short and plump, the kind of grandmother whose house would always smell of cookies and pastries and the kind who would never let you go without working in a warm hug and a soft pat on the cheek. For eleven years, she'd gone without giving one of those warm hugs. For eleven years, E had gone without receiving one.  
  
Mal had started all of this with her eye on the prize, a ludicrous cash reward. Now, she only sought to make things right. She cleared her throat, so as to not suddenly startle the woman with her presence, and spoke the words so handily given to her by the script.  
  
"Your majesty, Grand Duchess Potts, I've found the lost Princess Evie, heir to Auradon's royal throne...your granddaughter."  
  
Jane and Mal watched as the Grand Duchess slowly turned in her seat to see them. Expressionless was she, cherubic face and round cheeks giving no sign of excitement, curiosity, intrigue. Then her gentle eyes hardened just the slightest, perceptible only to Mal, who was quite experienced with such a gesture.  
  
"...Jane, I told you I will not be meeting with these 'princesses' any longer," was all she quietly said, before turning back around to watch the orchestra play.  
  
Mal had to admit, that wasn't quite in her script.  
  
"Your majesty, this is different. She's not a fake, she's the real Princess Evie," she quickly said.  
  
The Grand Duchess gave a wave of her hand, clearly dismissing the notion.  
  
"I have seen my fair share of 'real' Princess Evies, young lady, and I'm through. I'm far too old for my hopes to keep building up just to be stolen away. Jane, if you'd be so kind as to show this woman to the door."  
  
Jane's face utterly fell as she pulled the curtain back in place, not wanting to give up so easily but not having much of a choice where the Grand Duchess' wishes were concerned.  
  
"...She won't even  _see_ her?" Mal said in astonishment.  
  
"She really has seen a lot of girls, Mal," Jane sighed, fretfully wringing her hands. "And it's always been the same, they put on a show and an act just to get to the reward money."  
  
"But you heard E tell the story of how she escaped! You've looked at her with your own eyes! Jane, you know she really is the princess."  
  
"...I know she's the  _closest one_  to the princess—"  
  
"No, Jane, she is," Mal firmly said. "She's spent her life alone, in an orphanage, dreaming of something more, and now? Now that she's literally just a door away from finding her family, her home,  _herself?_ I can't just give up on her like that. My friends and I have gone through a runaway train, miles of snow, and a storm at sea just to get her here, and I'm not going anywhere until E has her grandmother back...Jane, you have to let me talk to her."  
  
Jane's vivid eyes flashed fearfully, not wanting to tempt a royal wrath by letting Mal get at the Grand Duchess when she'd for all intents and purposes been ordered away...but Jane  _had_  heard the story of how E escaped, she  _did_ look at the girl with her own two eyes. If she was going to bet one last chance on anyone, it was going to be E.  
  
So she pulled the curtain aside once more.  
  
Mal herself knew all too well of last chances, so she hurried past and into the box before Jane could change her mind.  
  
"Your majesty, please, I just want to talk to you."  
  
The Grand Duchess looked more annoyed than anything else as Mal sat down in the chair beside her, but Mal would take annoyance over execution any day.  
  
"My name is Mal, I'm from Auradon. You...you probably don't recognize me, but I used to live and work in the castle as a kitchen girl when I was little. I was the one who—"  
  
"A kitchen girl?" Grand Duchess Potts repeated. "Why, I must say dear, that's a rather clever one."  
  
She gracefully rose from her seat, fully intent on listening no longer as she strode regally for the curtain.  
  
"What? ...Wait, it isn't a lie!"  
  
Mal bounded to her feet and followed after.  
  
"Isn't it?" the Grand Duchess asked. "Just another story to sell to get you and your ‘princess’ close to the reward I offer for Evie's return?"  
  
Jane jumped and bowed her head when the Grand Duchess crossed through the curtain and into the seating room with Mal hot on her heels.  
  
E stopped her nervous pacing outside the room just in time to hear the voices floating past the door, which hadn't shut all the way when Mal left it to fall closed. Was that the Grand Duchess she heard? Was that her voice? Still quite overcome with nerves, E shuffled close to the door, leaning her ear in to listen and tensing herself to spring away at a moment's notice to avoid being caught eavesdropping. It wasn't one of the things Mal and the boys had taught her, but still she figured a princess shouldn't eavesdrop.  
  
"This isn't about the reward," Mal insisted.  
  
The Grand Duchess shook her head.  
  
"My dear, it's  _always_  about the reward. Girls fill their heads with history lessons and princess lessons thinking they can fool a poor old woman, and...did you say your name was Mal? From Auradon?"  
  
Mal swallowed hard. She didn't like where that tone of voice was going. And she watched, frozen and unblinking, as what was clearly realization dawned on Her Majesty's face.  
  
"...Ah, so  _you're_ Mal. Quite a few credits to your name, haven't you? Con artist, thief, art forger, you even have your own Wanted poster, don't you? Would it be too bold to add "criminal mastermind" to your list of accomplishments?"  
  
Mal hung her head.  
  
"I wish you wouldn't..." she whispered.  
  
"Yes, I know your name, Mal. You and your associates were holding auditions in Cinderellasburg to find an Evie lookalike. A young girl you and the others could train to walk, talk, and act like the princess. Something about 'the biggest con in history', if I'm not mistaken?"  
  
E had slept on the floors of a ramshackle orphanage in the middle of winter. Trekked through December snow in fingerless gloves and boots so worn they were nearly falling off her feet. Hurled herself practically headfirst into a snow bank to escape an out-of-control train. She'd almost drowned at sea, drenched in soaking winter waves and stinging pellets of rain on the empty deck of a wildly rocking ship. But still, after all of it, E had never felt as ice cold as she did now.  
  
Inside the room, Mal talked about as fast as her heart was pounding in her chest.  
  
"...No, your majesty, it's not about the con anymore—"  
  
"You see? There  _is_ a con," Grand Duchess Potts said knowingly.  
  
"There  _was_ a con! Yes, that's how all of this began, but it's different now! The girl we found really is Evie, you have to believe me!"  
  
"I don't have to do anything dear, except live out what's left of my life in peace, away from the tricks and the lies. Jane. Show her to the door."  
  
This time Jane couldn't disobey, this time, under the Grand Duchess' eye, she had to push Mal away.  
  
"Mal, you have to go..." she whispered apologetically.  
  
Mal ignored her, pushing back just as hard to stay there and implore the Grand Duchess while Jane tried to urge her out of the room.  
  
"It isn't a trick! It isn't a lie! Your majesty, she's right outside the door, she's been looking for you her  _whole_  life! Remember her sixth birthday party, remember the little granddaughter you came to the castle to see, then open that door and try to tell me it isn't her!"  
  
"Mal, please," Jane pushed her further and further away.  
  
"She's just as alone as you are! She has a big heart and a warm smile and wants nothing more than to find the home she once called her own! Just give her a chance, that's all I ask!"  
  
Mal fought, but for the first time in her life, she didn't fight the hardest, and under the Grand Duchess' orders Jane had her shoved back out into the hallway with a slammed door in her face, staring incredulously at a blank wall of wood with ringing ears and a racing heart.  
  
"...Holding auditions?"  
  
The small voice made Mal jump, startled her into whirling around on a dime.  
  
"...Evie."  
  
 _"Don't_  call me that!!" E snapped.  
  
"E—" Mal reached out desperately for her; E furiously stepped back.  
  
E's voice was weak, shaky. It didn't match the absolute fire shining in her eyes.  
  
"You know I remember every single thing you said to me? 'We're doing this purely out of the goodness of our hearts'. 'There's no doubt that you're Evie'. 'Cinderella herself couldn't ask for a better story'."  
  
"And I meant all of—"  
  
"No you didn't!!" E yelled, a terrible heat building behind her eyes. "They were all lies, Mal! Part of your con! You and the boys didn't do any of this for me, it was all for the reward money!"  
  
"Yes, okay?? Yes, that's how it started," Mal felt searing heat welling up in her eyes too. "That's how it started, but that's not how it's ending."  
  
E wouldn't,  _couldn't_  listen to anymore. She couldn't look at Mal, suddenly couldn't stand the sight of her face, the face of a snake hiding behind soft cheeks and endearing dimples. She turned and stormed away, caring not a bit about maybe breaking a stiletto heel with her furious stomps, but Mal was in the habit of not being deterred tonight.  
  
"You really are Evie!"  
  
"Stop telling me that!" E demanded. "I'm sick of believing you!"  
  
Mal raced her way in front of E, blocking her path.  
  
"This is the one thing you have to believe," she said. "When Jane asked how you escaped the invasion, it wasn't just some story you pulled out of thin air, it was—"  
  
"You'd know all about pulling stories from thin air, wouldn't you?"  
  
Mal made a grab for E's hand, but E pulled free with a rough yank.  
  
"Don't touch me, Mal! I'm done. You're just in the business of ruining lives, not changing them, and I'm done. I can't believe I tried to follow a dream and wound up with  _you."_  
  
"E, please! If you would just—!"  
  
The pain of a rough slap against her cheek beat out the pain of tears in her eyes, and as if they somehow thought they could soothe, the tears started to roll over the stinging red on Mal's face. They couldn't help. They couldn't soothe. All they did was burn as they flooded Mal's vision, blurring the sight of the princess as she disappeared, lost among the crowd beginning to return from intermission.

* * *

 

Mal didn’t know how long she'd been out on the sidewalk, holding a staring contest with the pavement. The play was over, surely the theater was empty, surely the man in the moon was looking down on her and uttering a grumbled "Pathetic" to the stars twinkling at his side. Mal didn't care. She  _was_ pathetic. Breaking E's heart and letting the chance to bring her back to her family slip right through her fingers. Mal hoped she'd feel the burn of the slap on her face for a very long time, it would be exactly what she deserved.  
  
The soft tap of footsteps descending the stone stairs behind her only caught her attention because she was sure all the other theater-goers had left by now, and it was a very distracted glance she cast over her shoulder. Distraction could only reign supreme for so long, only until Mal saw that it was Grand Duchess Potts regally coming down the steps, head held high with her car and her driver waiting at the curb.  
  
Strikingly alone. No Jane at her side. Just the driver holding the backseat door open for her before carefully shutting it as the Grand Duchess settled in, and then strolling around the back of the car to get to his driver's seat.  
  
Kidnapping. Grand theft auto. Here were some brand new things to be added to Mal's rap sheet.  
  
"...I am so going to get executed for this," she whispered to herself.  
  
She was fast, fast enough to get to the car and zip around the front end to get behind the wheel before the Grand Duchess' driver. Foot on the gas, hands tight around the wheel, Mal sped off into the night with a whining screech of the tires and a jarring lurch. The Grand Duchess of course recognized the unmistakable head of purple racing the car down the roads, and Mal heard the shocked gasp behind her.  
  
"You! How  _dare_ you! Stop this car at once!"  
  
"You're going to thank me for this later, your majesty," Mal said, eyes glued to the road.  
  
She didn't heed, didn't stop until she'd driven back to the little hotel they were all staying at, where E was probably holed up in her room, packing her bags.  
  
Grand Duchess Potts was still more grandmother than she was royal as Mal got out and opened the back door for her, the woman’s glower stern and scolding but not at all threatening.  
  
"Would I be standing here risking life imprisonment just for money I won't even be able to spend locked away in a jail cell?" Mal demanded. "Or would I be standing here risking life imprisonment because I know a girl who deserves the whole world and I'm not going to stop until she gets it? Heart or money, your majesty? You tell me which one is stronger."  
  
The Grand Duchess had to admit it was a convincing argument, but still, she was too smart, too wise, and too hurt to be played for a fool again. She merely turned her nose up at Mal, a regal gesture that E too had been guilty of on more than one occasion as their adventure was just getting off its feet. Perhaps this grandmother was just as stubborn as Mal.  
  
Stubborn like the way Mal stubbornly held onto her so-called insurance policy all this time.  
  
"Remember this?"  
  
She unceremoniously drew the little box out of her coat pocket, the gold of the heart clasp and the sword that pierced it shining in the glow of the streetlamp above. Mal didn't need a spoken answer, the sudden change in expression on the Grand Duchess' face was answer enough.  
  
"...How in the world did you—?"  
  
"Evie wanted to go back for it. Was ready to just jump right back into the chaos in that ballroom to save the present you gave to her, wasn't she?"  
  
Astonishment. It was clear as day in Grand Duchess Potts' eyes, but still, she was a very wise and very heartbroken woman.  
  
"...Perhaps you are a girl who worked in the castle. But that doesn't make the girl you've dragged along with you a princess."  
  
Mal carefully placed the box in the woman's hands, then stepped aside and out of her way.  
  
"The fact that she's a princess is what makes her a princess," Mal softly said. "Top floor, your majesty. Second door to the right."  
  
On the top floor, through the second door to the right, E was indeed packing. Quickly, angrily, like after a lifetime of dreaming she just couldn't get out of Villeneuve fast enough. The light knock on the door did little to deter her from stuffing her bag, trying to fit all her dazzling new things into it so she'd have at least  _one_  good memory of her adventures to take back to Auradon and to Dizzy.  
  
"Keep _away_ from me, Mal!" she called out, finding the blue day dress Mal had bought her just in time to wad it up and throw it off to the side, refusing to pack it.  
  
She froze at the sound of the door creaking open, tightly balling up her fists as an outlet for her anger and irritation.  
  
"Mal, what did I just—"  
  
It wasn’t Mal cautiously stepping into the room when she turned around. In fact, even though E had really never seen her before, she somehow knew exactly who it was. There was a moment where they just stood and stared at each other, E's wide eyes to the Grand Duchess' studying ones.  
  
"...I'm so sorry, your majesty, I thought you were—"  
  
"Mal. So very young to have made such a name for herself," the Grand Duchess closed the door behind her. "And what sort of name have  _you_ made for yourself, my dear?"  
  
My dear. The two words wrapped themselves around E like a blanket, warm and secure.  
  
"...None, I'm afraid," E laughed shyly. "I'm still in the middle of trying to figure out who I am. Not much time for making a name for myself. I never...I never felt like I could move on and face my future until I looked back and discovered my past."  
  
"That crooked young girl seems to think your past is one of royalty."  
  
E's face soured at the reminder, she turned her head so the elegant woman before her wouldn't have to see.  
  
"I don't care what Mal thinks. Mal is a liar, and she's wrong. I was only here to find my family, and she turned it into nothing more than one of her stupid little schemes."  
  
Unknowingly, E reached up to comfortingly clutch at her necklace. Still studying her, the Grand Duchess drew closer into the room, closer to E.  
  
It was a strange and somewhat unnerving feeling, the sensation of something deep within E being urgently tugged at. Something about the smell that wafted delicately past as the Grand Duchess moved.  
  
"...Is that your perfume?" E softly sniffed, trying to catch the smell of it again.  
  
"Why, yes, I've worn it for years," the Grand Duchess proudly said.  
  
E laughed quietly to herself, yet frowned as she tried to sort out the tugging sensation that was still pulling at her mind, her heart.   
  
"It smells like green tea...it's funny, your majesty, because I've never really liked tea, but I've always...I've always loved the smell of it."  
  
There were no windows open, and the nice hotel room certainly wasn't drafty, but still the Grand Duchess was overcome with a chill.   
  
Because she once knew a little girl who didn't like to drink her tea but always delighted in the smell of it when her grandmother was near.  
  
"...What's that you're holding, dear?" she quietly questioned.  
  
E uncurled her fingers to stare at her heart charm as it lay nestled into her palm.  
  
"It's my necklace. It's the only thing I have left of my childhood, my family. I figure...whoever gave it to me must have loved me."  
  
E settled heavily onto the edge of the bed, and the Grand Duchess silently took a seat next to her. It was strange, how the nerves that plagued E at the theater and the entire day as well simply weren't here now that the Grand Duchess was right there beside her, with the soft scent of green tea in the air.  
  
"...I don't have any of my memories," E admitted to Grand Duchess Potts, turning her heart charm around in her fingers. "I turned up lost in Cinderellasburg when I was six and grew up in the city orphanage. This necklace is... _was_  my only key to the past."  
  
E twisted the charm so the woman at her side could see the ruby red heart and the golden crown that rested on it.  
  
"Perhaps...not the only key," Grand Duchess Potts took out the box Mal had given— _returned_ —to her from within the lining of her long overcoat.  
  
More tugging inside E as she caught sight of the box out of the corner of her eye, like a rope tied to something under deep, murky water and struggling mightily to haul it to the surface.  
  
"...I've seen that somewhere before," she murmured.  
  
"...Have you?" the Grand Duchess' voice was only a whisper.  
  
"It's...a jewelry box? No, it's..." E would've smacked her head if she thought it could jar loose whatever was building in the fog of her mind. "That's a music box, isn't it? I think I had one like that when I was little, but...no, wait, that can't be, I don't remember anything from when I was little."  
  
Grand Duchess Potts, eyes sparkling with intrigue and the faintest, faintest rays of hope, put a gentle hand on E's knee.  
  
"Try, my dear," she softly implored.  
  
So E tried. The smell of tea, a music box...music and smells...noise, sights and sounds...a party.  
  
"I feel like it was a gift...a birthday gift," she mused to herself.  
  
To help, the Grand Duchess placed the box inside E's hands the way Mal had placed it in hers. E ran her fingers along the smooth, finished wood, painted a bright red, and over the cold metal of the sword and the heart on its front. Suddenly, as if not even in control of her own body anymore, something drove her to take the long chain around her neck and fit the heart charm into a likely-seeming spot carved into the back of the box. She twisted, and twisted, not knowing what would happen, but then...  
  
A melody. Soft, like a fairy song, as the music box came to life. The lid creaking open, two delicately crafted figures dancing with each other from inside, the melody suddenly burning everything,  _everything_  away from the perpetual decade-long haze that had seized and imprisoned E's mind and memories all this time, all these years.  
  
 _"On the wind, 'cross the sea,"_  she sang, voice purely angelic even though the rush of tears threatened to crack it.  _"Hear this song and...remember..."  
  
"Soon you'll be home with me, once upon a December..." _the Grand Duchess finished.  
  
And it didn't matter to her then just how elaborate the scheme was, what lengths Mal had taken, how hard she worked to pull off the greatest con in history. Only one girl in all the world had ever been sung that song.  
  
"...Grandma?"  
  
E wanted to furiously wipe at the stinging wetness in her eyes, wanted to see this moment perfectly, in crystal clear detail, but she just couldn't move. Couldn't fall into the hug she'd been waiting for and dreaming of for eleven years.  
  
So her grandmother did it for her.  
  
"...Evie!" she cried, bringing her into her arms just like she herself had been dreaming of for eleven years. "Oh, my darling Evie!"  
  
Evie. Her name was Evie. She remembered that now, and not just because it was something that Mal, or Jay, or Carlos had tried to foist on her. She was Evie, a  _princess,_  a member of royalty—here was the so much more she secretly wished she was destined for when she was curled up on the orphanage floor late at night with nothing to her name but a beloved necklace and Dizzy's adoration. Castles, palaces, jewels, grand parties, nights at the theater and nights spinning around a spotless ballroom floor, all of it was hers now, all of it was hers  _again_. But she cared little for that now, so very little indeed.  
  
All she cared about were the arms around her, the smell of tea, a warmth so indescribable burning inside out and streaming ecstatically down her cheeks.  
  
"Grandma..." she sobbed, tears cracking her voice now. "It's really you..."  
  
"It's  _you_  my princess...my little Evie, I've missed you so!!"  
  
But they were here, now, lost in a long-overdue hug that they might happily never find their way out of. Not a Grand Duchess and a Crown Princess, but a grandmother and her granddaughter. Together in Villeneuve.   
  
And down below, standing under the safe circle of a streetlight's glow, Mal knew her work was done. Staring up at the window and just imagining all the love and laughter and happiness taking place just on the other side of it. A beautiful young woman who deserved the whole world, and Mal had a hand in helping to give it to her. She'd saved E's life once, protected her future. And now, she'd rescued her past. Not a bad day's work for a con artist and a thief.   
  
"...I'll miss you."  
  
She sniffed, blinking crazily to fight off the tears. She almost wanted to wait, just to see if the princess might cross the window for a fleeting moment, just so Mal could have one final look at her.  
  
"...Goodbye, Evie. It was so great to see you again."  
  
It really was. An adventure, and a journey. Something Mal would hang on to for the rest of her life.  
  
Something Mal fiercely clung to with all her heart as she started down the street and walked out of Evie's world forever.


End file.
